A lawsuit against the UW’s faculty-salary-increase freeze was dismissed in the King County Superior Court on Friday, according to The Seattle Times.

Peter Nye, associate professor of business at UW Bothell, filed a lawsuit against the UW in response to Executive Order No. 29, which suspends annual 2-percent meritorious salary increases during the 2009-11 biennium, the Times reported. These salary increases have typically been awarded annually since 2000, as stipulated by Executive Order No. 64 and the Faculty Code.

According to the Times, Nye argued that the UW breached its contract and that the level of faculty input in the decision to freeze meritorious salary increases was insufficient, as the Faculty Senate did not vote to endorse the new executive order.

However, the UW argued that administrators followed the correct procedure to issue the executive order by seeking the approval of the Board of Regents and consulting with Faculty Senate officials, the Times reported.

While there was no vote or motion to that effect, previous Faculty Senate chair David Lovell said that faculty members were consulted in three ways: the appointment of a committee, composed of administrators and past and present Faculty Senate officials, to re-evaluate the salary policy; discussion of the executive order in the Faculty Senate; and a review of the executive order by Lovell and the then-secretary of the Faculty Senate.

Executive Order No. 29 was issued in response to budgetary constraints, given the roughly 26-percent cut in state funding to the university last year.

In 2002, a similar wage-increase freeze was implemented due to budgetary constraints at the time. Most active faculty members during the 2002-03 academic year, were not awarded meritorious wage increases. However, the freeze was not issued as an executive order.

Duane Storti, a mechanical-engineering professor at the Seattle campus, filed a lawsuit against the UW in 2004 for violating the previously instated salary policy of Executive Order 64 and the Faculty Code. Storti prevailed in the lawsuit, and the two-year legal dispute resulted in the UW paying a $17.5-million settlement.

Reach News Editor Joanna Nolasco at news@dailyuw.com.