In re Kelley

Summary

The Vermont Supreme Court affirmed a Vermont Labor Relations Board decision interpreting a collective bargaining agreement between the State and the Vermont State Employees' Association. The court held that employees placed on family leave because of their own serious illness retained an unrestricted right to use accrued paid sick leave under Article 31, notwithstanding Article 35's six-week limitation and leave-use cascade. The court found the agreement ambiguous and deferred to the Board's reasonable conclusion, supported by contract language and bargaining-history evidence, that the 1999 amendments did not waive that right.

Holdings

1. The collective bargaining agreement is genuinely ambiguous because Article 31 appears to provide an unrestricted right to use accrued sick leave while Article 35(5)(b) appears to limit sick-leave use during family leave to six weeks.
2. The Labor Relations Board reasonably determined that the parties intended to preserve employees' unrestricted right to use accrued sick leave for their own serious illness, and that determination was entitled to deference.
3. Under the collective bargaining agreement, an employee placed on family leave because of the employee's own serious illness has an unrestricted right to use accrued paid sick leave and is not subject to Article 35(5)(b)'s six-week limitation.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the collective bargaining agreement was ambiguous regarding the relationship between Article 31's unrestricted sick-leave provision and Article 35's six-week limitation on paid leave during family leave.
2. If the agreement was ambiguous, whether the Labor Relations Board reasonably determined from extrinsic evidence that the parties did not intend Article 35 to diminish employees' preexisting right to use accrued sick leave for their own serious illness.
3. Whether employees placed on family leave because of their own serious illness may use accrued paid sick leave beyond the six-week limitation in Article 35(5)(b).

Disposition

affirmed