Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1980 [PAGE 212]

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202

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[February 21

upon and diminish the right of the plaintiffs as members of a prevailing rate class. Count I seeks a determination of the rights and duties of the parties under the State Universities Civil Service System Act, a nullification of the agreements entered into between the University with Local 321 insofar as they establish wage rates other than the prevailing rates, and an injunction against the University and Director Ward restraining them from bargaining with anyone other than Local No. 6 as an affiliate of the Council as to the wages, hours, and conditions of employment for the plaintiffs as construction laborers at the University. Count I I of the complaint alleges that the Merit Board removed plaintiffs from the category known as a "prevailing rate of wages" class on December 13, 1965, and designated construction laborers as a "negotiated" category without notice to, and without the consent or approval of, the plaintiffs as construction laborers at the University. The actions of the Merit Board in doing so are said to violate the provisions of the State Universities Civil Service System Act and plaintiffs allege they did not learn of the actions of the Merit Board until November 12, 1978. Count I I seeks a declaratory judgment that the action of the Merit Board in changing construction laborers from a "prevailing" class to a "negotiated" class without the consent of the plaintiffs is void as violative of the Act. It also requests that the Merit Board be ordered to designate construction laborers as a prevailing rate class and be enjoined from directing or approving a wage rate for the class that is other than the prevailing rate of wages. Count I I I alleges that on or after April 18, 1977. Director Ward submitted to the Merit Board, and the Merit Board approved, a schedule of wages for construction laborers at the University of Illinois Medical Center campus which were at rates different from the "prevailing rate of wages," thereby violating the State Universities Civil Service System Act. Count I I I seeks a declaratory judgment that these actions are improper and that the Merit Board be restrained from directing the payment of any wage rate other than the prevailing rate of wages for the category known as construction laborer. Count I V is based on the provisions of Public Act 79-1091 (H.B. 622) enacted in 1975. This Act provides that whenever "any State officer, agency, or authority" employs an individual in a capacity of such a character as would be entitled to the prevailing rate of wages under the State Personnel Code, the state officer, agency, or authority is to pay that individual at the prevailing rate, notwithstanding the nonapplicability of the State Personnel Code. It is alleged that construction or building laborers, as a class, have been designated under the State Personnel Code as a prevailing rate class, and that the actions of the Merit Board and Director Ward in recommending and approving the payment of a different rate to plaintiffs violate the 1975 statute. Count I V seeks a determination of the rights of the parties under the 1975 legislation and an order requiring the Merit Board to direct payment of prevailing rates to the plaintiffs as construction laborers and enjoining Director Ward from agreeing to the payment of any other rate than the prevailing rate. T h e university counsel has recommended that he be authorized to take such steps as are necessary or appropriate, including the employment of special counsel, to protect the interests of the University in this matter, to defend the action and to provide representation for Director Ward, if he so requests. I concur.

T h e student advisory vote was: Aye, Miss Kooper, Mr. Sobotka, Mr. Watson; no, none. O n motion of M r . Howard, authority was given as recommended by the following vote: Aye, Dr. Donoghue, Mr. Forsyth, Mr. H a h n , Mr. Howard, Mr. Lenz, Mr. Neal, Mrs. Shepherd, Mr. Stone, M r . Velasquez; no, none; absent, Governor Thompson.