Court says Boston can lay off 16 housing workers in ruling that could shake up municipal contract talks across state

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today the Boston Housing Authority had the right to lay off 16 boiler inspectors in 2006, because a contract clause that prohibited layoffs had expired along with the rest of the contract a couple years earlier.

An arbitrator had ordered the authority to rehire the 16 workers, because the contract had an "evergreen" clause that required provisions of the old contract to continue until a new agreement was reached. But in a 4-2 ruling issued today, the state's highest court said that violates a state law that sets a three-year limit on the length of municipal collective-bargaining agreements:

We recognize that an evergreen clause is designed to maintain the status quo in labor relations and provide for a continuing code of conduct while parties negotiate a new bargaining agreement. ... However, the effect of an evergreen clause is to preserve and maintain all of the provisions of a CBA, thereby extending its duration beyond three years, which is prohibited by G.L. c. 150E, § 7 (a).

The two dissenting judges noted the state Division of Labor Relations had upheld evergreen clauses since at least 1977 and that another section of the law allows evergreen clauses to protect workers' rights.

Complete ruling.