STATE OF CONNECTICUT
OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH
October 28, 2003 2003-R-0787
TEACHER AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR
BINDING ARBITRATION
By:
Judith Lohman, Chief Analyst
Jennifer
Gelb, Research Attorney
You
asked how many teacher and school administrator contracts have been settled by
binding arbitration and whether, on salary issues, arbitrators have more often
chosen union or board of education last best offers. This report updates our
2002 report on this topic to include the 2002-03 negotiation season (2002-R-0691).
SUMMARY
Between
1998-99 and 2002-03, school districts negotiated a total of 510 teacher and
school administrator collective bargaining agreements. The vast majority (84.
3%) were resolved in the negotiation or mediation phase of the collective
bargaining process required under the Teacher Negotiation Act (TNA).
Negotiators reached an impasse on one or more issues in 74 contracts. All of
these contracts went to binding arbitration but the parties settled over half
(38) by stipulated agreements before arbitrators issued rulings. Thus, during
the five most recently completed TNA negotiation cycles, arbitrators issued 42
awards on 36 contracts (7% of the total). There are more awards than contracts
because six awards were rejected and went to a second arbitration.
Between
1999-00 and 2002-03, arbitrators decided 80 salary issues, choosing school
board last best offers (LBOs) 32 times and union
offers 48 times, a disparity almost entirely attributable to arbitration awards
issued in 2002-03. (Although 1998-99 awards are included in the overall
arbitration totals in this report, we cannot include them in the issue analysis
because copies of the arbitration decisions are not readily accessible. ) Prior to last year, arbitrators chose school board and
union salary LBOs 22 and 23 times, respectively.
Information
in this report comes from State Department of Education's annual listing of the
settlement status of teacher and school administrator negotiations and from
copies of arbitration awards for 1999-00, 2000-01, 2001-02, and 2002-03 on file
at the department. (1998-99 awards are not included because they are filed in a
different location that is not readily accessible. )
CONTRACT
SETTLEMENT METHODS
1998-99
to 2002-03
In
each year since 1998, most teacher and school administrator contracts have been
resolved through negotiations or mediation. Only a small number of contracts
were submitted to arbitrators and an even smaller number resulted in
arbitration awards, although the percentage of contracts resolved through
arbitration has risen in the past two years. Arbitrators decided issues in 6%
of the teacher and school administrator contracts negotiated in 1998-99,
1999-00, and 2000-01; 11% of those negotiated in 2001-02; and 15% of those negotiated
in 2002-03.
Table
1 shows the number of contracts resolved at each step in each of the past five
years.
Refer to the following website for a
continuation of this report:
http://www.cga.state.ct.us/2003/olrdata/ed/rpt/2003-R-0787.htm