## Facts

- Anne O’Connell Null worked for the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (ODMRDD) as an hourly Licensure Specialist in a union bargaining unit.
- A collective bargaining agreement (CBA) governed wages, hours, and working conditions and contained a grievance process culminating in final and binding arbitration.
- Null asserted ODMRDD failed to pay required overtime compensation.
- She filed overtime-related grievances under the CBA, which were resolved by settlement providing her $3,000 for travel expenses and 150 hours of compensatory time credit.
- Null later filed suit in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas alleging overtime violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Ohio’s Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act (R.C. Chapter 4111).
- After earlier proceedings directed the FLSA claim to the Court of Claims, the remaining dispute concerned whether Null could pursue her state-law overtime claim in common pleas court despite the CBA’s arbitration clause.

## Issues

1. Whether R.C. 4117.10(A) makes the CBA’s final and binding grievance-arbitration procedure the exclusive remedy for a public employee’s overtime dispute covered by the CBA.
2. Whether a bargaining-unit employee may maintain a statutory overtime action under R.C. 4111.03 in common pleas court when the dispute is governed by a Chapter 4117 CBA providing final and binding arbitration.

## Decision

- The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for ODMRDD.
- It held that, because Null was covered by a Chapter 4117 CBA with final and binding arbitration, R.C. 4117.10(A) required that her overtime dispute be pursued solely through the contractual grievance procedure.
- The court concluded that the common pleas court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate the R.C. 4111.03 overtime claim in light of the exclusive arbitral remedy.

## Legal Principles

- Under R.C. 4117.10(A), a public-sector CBA governs wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment covered by the agreement.
- When a Chapter 4117 CBA provides final and binding arbitration of grievances, public employers and bargaining-unit employees are subject solely to that grievance-arbitration procedure for covered disputes.
- R.C. Chapter 4117 prevails over conflicting state laws regulating the same employment subjects, absent a statutory exception; a statutory wage claim may be barred where it would bypass the CBA’s exclusive grievance-arbitration remedy.
- Courts may treat the exclusivity mandated by R.C. 4117.10(A) as depriving the common pleas court of jurisdiction over a covered wage dispute presented as a statutory claim.

## Conclusion

The court held that a bargaining-unit public employee covered by a Chapter 4117 CBA with final and binding arbitration must pursue overtime disputes through the CBA’s grievance-arbitration process, and cannot bring a separate R.C. 4111.03 overtime action in common pleas court.


Null v. Ohio Dep’t of Mental Retardation & Dev. Disabilities, 137 Ohio App. 3d 152, 738 N.E.2d 105 (Ohio Ct. App. 2000)