R2023-137 Resolution Authorizing Pay and Benefits I.A.F.F. Local 505, Fire Association

Home Browse Search

The City and the Union shall attempt to agree upon an arbitrator. If the parties fail to agree to the selection of an arbitrator, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) shall be requested by either or both parties to submit simultaneously to both parties an identical list of seven (7) names of persons from its grievance arbitration panel, which arbitrators are members of the National Academy of Arbitrators and are residents of Illinois. Both the City and the Union shall have the right to alternately strike three names from the panel with the party striking first to be determined by a coin toss. The remaining person shall be the arbitrator. FMCS shall be notified by the parties of the name of the selected arbitrator, who shall be notified by the FMCS of his/her selection and request the scheduling of a mutually agreeable date for the commencement of the arbitration hearing(s). All hearings shall take place in the city of Decatur, Illinois, unless otherwise mutually agreed. Section 8. The arbitrator shall have no authority to amend, modify, nullify, ignore, add to or subtract from the provisions of this agreement. He shall only consider and make a decision with respect to the specific issue submitted to him in writing, and shall have no authority to make a decision as to any other issue not so submitted to him or as to any issue not covered by the terms of this agreement. In the event that the arbitrator finds a violation of the terms of this agreement, he shall fashion an appropriate remedy within the limits provided herein. The arbitrator shall have no power to make a decision that is contrary to the laws of the State of Illinois or the United States. The arbitrator shall submit his written decision to the parties within thirty business days of the close of the hearings or the submission of briefs, whichever is later, unless the parties agree to an extension. A decision rendered consistent with the terms hereof shall be final and binding and may be enforced at the instance of either party pursuant to the procedure in the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act. The pendency of any proceedings for review of the arbitrator's decision as allowed by law shall not automatically stay the order of the arbitrator. Section 9. For all arbitrations, the losing party shall bear the cost of the arbitration, as well as the cost of providing the arbitrator a transcript of the hearings. In the event that the decision of the arbitrator finds in part for each party the arbitrator shall provide in his order for the assessment and division of such costs. All proceedings shall be transcribed unless mutually agreed to the contrary. Each party shall be responsible for compensating its own representatives and witnesses. Section 10. No grievance shall be entertained or processed unless submitted, in writing to the Fire Chief, as per Section 5 hereof, within fifteen (15) business days of the date that the employee knew or should have known of the event giving rise to a grievance. Any award to an aggrieved employee for a violation of the terms of this agreement shall be limited to consideration of only the said fifteen (15) business days immediately preceding the filing of the grievance plus any period thereafter during which such practice continued. If a grievance is not appealed by the union or the employee to the next step in the procedure set out herein within the time limits set forth or as mutually extended in writing, it shall be deemed waived and settled on the basis of the city's last response. 33