HSTA intervenes to ensure fair pay standards for teachers

The Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association (HSTA) has been granted permission to intervene in a court appeal of a labor board decision concerning hundreds of its members who have not received credit for prior teaching experience.

The Hawaiʻi State Department of Education (HIDOE) is appealing the Hawaiʻi Labor Relations Board (HLRB) decision regarding the Fall 2022 repricing of Bargaining Unit 05 (BU 05) teachers, commonly referred to as the compression fix. The decision ruled that the HIDOE must include six years of non-BU 05 teaching experience in calculating salary repricing for relevant educators.

HSTA sought to intervene in the HIDOE’s appeal because the outcome of this case has direct and substantial implications for teachers’ pay and for the union’s ability to ensure fair treatment of its members.

A state court has allowed HSTA to intervene in the case, which the union requested for the following reasons:

1. The outcome of this appeal directly affects the statutory rights and obligations of HSTA as the exclusive bargaining representative for BU 05 teachers. 
2. HSTA has a significant interest in preserving the procedural and substantive standards established by the HLRB decision.  
3. HSTA’s participation ensures that the court hears the perspective of the organization most directly impacted by the outcome.

Although HSTA was dismissed from the original administrative proceeding (and that dismissal was not appealed), the state education department’s challenge to the HLRB’s findings, especially regarding repricing procedures under HRS § 89-9(f)(2) and the exclusion of teachers based on prior experience, raises legal questions with broad implications for future compensation policies across BU 05.

The next key date in this case is a court hearing scheduled for Nov. 25, when the HSTA will make its formal arguments.

At this time, no action is required from members. HSTA will continue to update members as developments occur.

Last year, HIDOE appealed the HLRB decision in this case, and the HSTA requested that the department address the hundreds of educators who were owed back pay due to the labor board ruling.

The HIDOE’s 2022 repricing initiative was authorized under the state’s collective bargaining law [HRS § 89-9(f)(2)], which grants the employer discretion to reprice classes within the bargaining unit without the consent of the union. Because the statute makes repricing a unilateral right of the employer, any attempt to legally challenge the plan could have led the DOE to withdraw it altogether, thus jeopardizing more than $50 million worth of significant salary adjustments that thousands of teachers ultimately received.

However, while the HLRB recognized that repricing did not require negotiation with HSTA, it found that HIDOE’s implementation fell short of statutory requirements. Specifically, the HLRB concluded that the department violated HRS §§ 89-9(f)(2) and 89-3 when it excluded a class of teachers whose previously credited non-HIDOE teaching service was disregarded in the repricing formula. In doing so, the education department failed to exercise its unilateral repricing authority in accordance with the law, resulting in inequities among bargaining unit members.