On December 23, 2021, Ramsey County District Court Judge Robert A. Awsumb, granted a Temporary Restraining Order (“TRO”) enjoining enforcement of the City of St. Paul’s proposed vaccination policy for city employees. St. Paul had established a “hard” mandate requiring that all city employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 by December 31, 2021, offering no testing alternative. Employees failing to attest to their vaccination status by January 14, 2022, would be subject to discipline, and possibly termination of employment.
Two unions, the St. Paul Police Federation and Firefighters Local 21, challenged the St. Paul vaccination mandate, arguing that the City was required to negotiate the terms of the vaccine mandate because it “imposes new terms and conditions on employment.” Then, if negotiations failed, the union argued the parties were required to submit the dispute to binding interest arbitration in accordance with the Public Employment Labor Relations Act (“PELRA”).
The City took the position that it was not required to negotiate with the unions because it had implemented the policy under its “inherent managerial authority.” Under PELRA, “[a] public employer is not required to meet and negotiate on matters of inherent managerial policy.” PELRA defines “matters of inherent managerial policy” to include the following: “areas of discretion or policy as the functions and programs of the employer, its overall budget, utilization of technology, the organizational structure, selection of personnel, and direction and the number of personnel.” Thus, the city reasoned, if mandatory vaccination is a “matter of inherent managerial policy,” the city was not required by PELRA to negotiate over the mandatory vaccination policy.
In weighing the TRO factors, the court held that the case turned on whether the COVID-19 vaccination policy is a “term and condition of employment” or an “inherent managerial policy” meaning negotiation and arbitration were not required. To make that determination, the court had to determine:
(1) whether the vaccinate-or-be-terminated Policy is more like “the employer’s personnel policies affecting working conditions of the employees” (i.e. a term and condition under PELRA), or (2) whether it is more like a “utilization of technology . . . selection of personnel, and direction and number of personnel” issue (i.e. inherent managerial policy under PELRA).
In its analysis, the court did not reach a final conclusion as to whether the mandatory vaccination policy constituted an “inherent managerial right.” Instead, the court concluded that there is a “reasonable likelihood that the Policy is a term and condition of employment subject to collective bargaining and not inherent managerial policy, as defined by PELRA.”
According to the court, because unvaccinated workers risk losing their jobs in the absence of a TRO, the court concluded that the balance of the factors weigh in favor of maintaining the “status quo” (and granting the TRO enjoining enforcement of the vaccine mandate) until a full hearing on the merits in January 2022.
Although the court did not reach a final decision on whether implementing the policy was an “inherent managerial right” under PELRA, the court ignored a recent decision from the New Jersey Court of Appeals finding the City of Newark did not need to bargain with its public unions over implementation of a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy because, according to the court, the issue constituted a “non-negotiable managerial prerogative” under New Jersey state law. In re City of Newark, 2021 WL 4398457 (Sept. 27, 2021) (“We hold that the City has a non-negotiable managerial prerogative to immediately implement its COVID-19 vaccination mandate.”).
Bottom Line
The St. Paul vaccination-or-termination policy for city employees is paused for now. The court has encouraged the parties to go back to the negotiating table pending final resolution of this matter. St. Paul may also appeal the decision to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.