By Troy Graham
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — A Common Pleas Court judge this week threw out nearly the entire arbitration award for Philadelphia firefighters and sent the contract dispute back to an arbitration panel.
The firefighters’ contract has been in limbo since the Nutter administration appealed the panel’s initial award in November 2010, saying it was financially ruinous to the city.
The award called for firefighters to receive 3 percent raises over each of the following three years, with no furloughs allowed.
In the city’s five-year budget, which must be submitted and approved by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, the administration counted on nearly $2.4 million in annual savings from the firefighters’ contract. The award, the city argued, instead would cost $31 million annually.
The administration said the award failed to follow the law that created PICA — the city’s financial oversight agency — and did not consider the city’s ability to pay for the contract.
The judge’s ruling sent the matter back to the arbitration panel “to issue a final award in accordance with the requirements” of PICA that the city submit a five-year plan to show how it will balance its budget. The panel consists of a city-chosen arbitrator, a union arbitrator, and a neutral arbitrator.
Bill Gault, president of Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said the original award was fair and “the mayor seems to not want to abide by binding arbitration.”
“We had to get it out of the court’s hands,” he said. “It was taking too long and we haven’t had a raise in three years.”
Mark McDonald, a spokesman for Nutter, declined to comment.
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