EAST PROVIDENCE — The state Labor Relations Board has decided to hold a formal hearing on a complaint by the city teachers union that the School Committee violated Rhode Island labor law by insisting on public negotiations as a prior condition for collective bargaining.

The charge was filed in early December by the East Providence Education Association. Yesterday, the board confirmed that it has issued its own complaint, which says that the school board’s insistence on public talks resulted in “mere surface bargaining,” a violation of the duty to bargain in good faith.

The board’s complaint is not a finding but its own statement of the issue, which will go to a formal hearing Aug. 25.

There is far more interest in a second unfair labor practice charge filed by the union, over the committee’s decision to cut teachers’ pay and impose employee contributions to the cost of health insurance premiums, effective Jan. 16.

The Labor Relations Board is expected to discuss the latter issue tomorrow to determine whether to go forward, according to its administrator, Robyn Golden.

City Councilman Robert Cusack characterized the lower pay as a rollback of an unaffordable 4.7 percent increase that was part of a contract that expired last Oct. 31.

Valarie Lawson, president of the 500-member teachers union, said in a statement that “the committee’s refusal to engage in good faith bargaining has created the ongoing controversy.

“It is my hope that the School Committee and the City Council will reevaluate their actions and seek an equitable solution to the fiscal problems in East Providence,” Lawson said.

Mayor Joseph S. Larisa Jr. said the city and the School Committee believe the salary issue belongs before the state commissioner of education, not the Labor Relations Board.

He said any decision by the board may be appealed to the courts.

Union lawyers recently lost a recent bid for a court injunction to stay the salary reductions until its unfair-labor-practice charge can be heard.

gmacris@projo.com