Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Labor & Employment Law Blogs -> New York Public Personnel Law

Labor & Employment Law

: New York Public Personnel Law

The failure to respond to a letter containing a statement that if there were no response the writer would assume a particular event deemed ?an answer?

The failure to respond to a letter containing a statement that if there were no response the writer would assume a particular event deemed ?an answer?
Town of Wallkill PBA and Town of Wallkill, PERB Improper Practice decision #U-27530

A PERB Administrative Law Judge dismissed a charge alleging a violation of Civil Service Law §§209a.1(a) and (d) when Wallkill failed to respond to the three letters the PBA's sent to it demanding to know whether the Town Supervisor intended to comply with a local law establishing a disciplinary procedure for police officers that differed from the procedure contained in the expired collective bargaining agreement.

The ALJ held that the failure to respond did not constitute a violation of the Act because each letter sent to the Town by the PBA contained a statement that if there were no response, the PBA would consider the lack of a response to mean that the Town would abandon the negotiated procedure in favor of the new legislatively imposed procedure.

Under these circumstances, said the ALJ, the Town?s failure to answer the letters ?was a response to the information demand.?

[Adapted from a PERB Recent Decisions posting on the Internet]

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on November 14, 2008 (boomark / email).