EAST PROVIDENCE — The state Labor Relations Board will hold a formal hearing on whether the School Committee broke the law when it unilaterally cut teachers’ pay 5 percent and began payroll deductions equivalent to 20 percent of the cost of health-insurance premiums.

The labor board issued a complaint against the committee after the East Providence Education Association charged that the School Department broke the law when it instituted the cuts on Jan. 16. The labor board voted to issue the complaint during a closed meeting Tuesday, but did not make an announcement until yesterday morning after both sides had received written notice, said administrator Robyn Golden.

“East Providence teachers are happy that the labor board has filed a complaint,” said Valarie Lawson, president of the 500-member union. The board’s vote bolsters “what the East Providence teachers have been saying all along — that the School Committee hasn’t bargained in good faith and their actions have been unlawful.”

Daniel Kinder, a lawyer representing the School Department, said he wasn’t surprised by the board’s vote.

“Almost every charge a union brings gets a complaint and hearing,” he said.

Hearings are slated for March 9, March 11, March 19 and April 2. They will be open to the public and held on the first floor of the Department of Labor and Training, 1511 Pontiac Ave., Cranston.

The board also decided to consolidate the case with another complaint it previously brought against the committee. That one, which had been slated for a hearing on Aug. 25, deals with whether the committee violated the law when it insisted on public negotiations as a prior condition for collective bargaining.

But instead of waiting until August to take up both cases, the board wanted to “expedite” the matter since it has moved to the “forefront,” Golden said. It’s been in the public spotlight and has already been to court. The union sought an injunction to block the pay cuts, but a Superior Court judge denied the request and the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal.

School officials say the salary reductions will save about $3 million this year and that, without them, the district would run a deficit, which is a violation of state law.

The teachers’ contract expired Oct. 31. When the union and the committee couldn’t agree on a new one, the dispute went to arbitration. But the committee rejected the arbitrator’s decision, which froze pay for one year and awarded annual raises of 2 percent and 3 percent in the second and third years. It also would have gradually phased in insurance premium sharing, from zero to 15 percent over three years.

“We tried everything to get an agreement with the teachers’ union that we could afford. We told them they could write the agreement any way they wanted, as long as it saved us at least $3 million. We mediated. We arbitrated. And then we had no choice,” Anthony Carcieri, chairman of the committee, said in a statement.

“They wouldn’t agree and the law doesn’t allow us to pay them what they wanted. So we had to roll back their pay raise from last year, and they have to pay part of their insurance costs. If the government can’t protect the taxpayers then what’s it there for? If the government doesn’t follow the law, then who will? The law says we can’t run a deficit. We have no more money.”

rsalit@projo.com