“PERC Takes a Step Back on Automatic Increment Payments” by Joseph Hannon in New Jersey Law Journal

Joseph M. Hannon, Counsel in the firm’s Labor Law Practice Group, has written an article in this week’s New Jersey Law Journal on the "dynamic status quo doctrine;“ Mr. Hannon analyzes a recent decision by the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC), calling it “a decision that changes the landscape of negotiations in the public sector.”  The article looks at the case of County of Atlantic and PBA Local 243, P.E.R.C. No. 2014-40, 2013 NJ PERC LEXIS 101 (Dec. 19, 2013):  “Under a principle known as the dynamic status quo doctrine, employers were obligated to pay the increments on salary guides of expired agreements in which a successor agreement had not been reached. Therefore, employees not at the top step of the salary guide would receive pay increases on a determined annual date simply by moving up the guide, regardless of a negotiated pay increase and regardless of whether a successor agreement has been reached. While employers had been required to pay such increments at the expiration of a collective negotiations agreement, PERC's recent decision indicates that employers will no longer be required to do so.”