WATERLOO - Black Hawk County clerical workers will not be compensated for two days work lost during the June floods.

An arbitrator for the Iowa Public Employee Relations Board has ruled against a grievance filed by employees claiming they were entitled under their union contract to receive pay when the downtown Waterloo courthouse was closed June 11 and 12.

Some 46 workers represented by Public, Professional and Maintenance Employees Local 2003 said the Board of Supervisors' decision to shut down the building deprived them of a guaranteed 40-hour work week.

The county argued the contract contains no guarantee of 40 hours and noted the decision to shut down the building was caused by a power outage on June 11 and street flooding June 12, during which Waterloo Mayor Tim Hurley and discouraged travel downtown.

Arbitrator Paul Lansing, of Champaign, Ill., said the record flooding and its effects were an act of God, which could not have been anticipated in the collective bargaining agreement.

"The best intentioned plans laid out in a contract between well intentioned parties cannot account for all potential future events that may occur," Lansing said in the ruling.

"No one anticipated the floods that happened in Black Hawk County in June 2008," he continued. "To not take into account the environment that surrounds the dispute is to do an injustice to the parties."

While Lansing agreed with the county that no 40-hour guaranteed work week was in the contract, he also noted the decision to shut down the courthouse was made with employee safety in mind.

Employees affected by the shutdown were allowed to use vacation, compensatory or other paid time off to avoid having a smaller paycheck that week. And workers who had no paid time off available were allowed to borrow that time from future paid leave.

Contact Tim Jamison at (319) 291-1577 or tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com.