More than $1.3 million in legal fees later, Metro has won the second round in a dispute over whether the agency must pay 3 percent raises to bus and train operators over three years.
A federal judge ruled Friday that an arbitrator erred when he ruled that union employees should have received the raise and were owed backwages, without considering Metro’s financial situation. The arbitrator has 40 days to issue another ruling accordingly.
The battle over the pay dates back nearly three years and has frustrated agency officials in the delays. The first ruling came in November 2009, when arbitrators ordered the transit agency to pay the wage increases. But Metro appealed the decision to court because it said the arbitrators did not consider the agency’s poor financial situation or the economic climate.
The court kicked the case back to the neutral arbitrator, who clarified his reasoning, and sent it to the U.S. District Court in Maryland for a judge to resolve.
