Prosecutors sue county in union wage case

The Clark County Prosecutors Association filed a lawsuit late Friday challenging the county’s effort to take away the collective bargaining rights of 43 members and reduce their salaries by 6 percent.

The County Commission is set to vote Tuesday to prohibit the 43 lawyers, many in the district attorney’s civil division, from earning union wages. The action is being taken under a law passed by the 2011 Legislature that precludes “civil law division” lawyers from belonging to a union.

All seven county commissioners are named as defendants in the lawsuit, with the county.

The 14-page lawsuit, assigned to District Judge Valorie Vega, calls Senate Bill 98 unconstitutional and accuses the county of trying to breach its collective bargaining agreement with the prosecutors union, which covers 146 employees.

Union members are “being wrongly disenfranchised from the labor protections” under Nevada law, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit seeks a court order “permanently enjoining the enforcement of SB98” and threatens to seek a preliminary injunction against the county if it proceeds with its vote on Tuesday. The union wants the dispute to be decided by arbitration under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.

Many of the attorneys on the list of 43 the county provided the union don’t even work in the civil division, the lawsuit said. The list includes attorneys who work in the criminal, family support and juvenile divisions.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Pam Weckerly, the president of the prosecutors union, could not be reached for comment.

County spokesman Erik Pappa declined to comment because the county had not yet received a copy of the lawsuit.

But Pappa provided a copy of an email County Manager Don Burnette sent to the commissioners Friday, reporting that an independent audit showed wage increases for attorneys in the district attorney’s office averaged 14.6 percent over the past three years. The increases cost the county $5.4 million, Burnette wrote.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.