A Superior Court judge Tuesday let stand an arbitrator’s ruling that the city was allowed to pass onto its firefighters increased pension and retirement benefit costs due to changes in the state pension system.
The city firefighters’ union had gone to court seeking to overturn the arbitrator’s 2015 decision, claiming he’d misinterpreted the language in the contract.
In his 17-page decision, Superior Court Justice Joseph Montalbano noted that by law the union had to do more than just have a good argument. Past state Supreme Court rulings have found that arbitration is intended to keep cases from going to court and a court may only overturn an arbitrator’s ruling if it is due to fraud, corruption, undue influence or an abuse of authority.