A lawsuit by Scranton’s police union against the city and its Civil Service Commission claims they improperly scheduled test dates for promotions for sergeant and lieutenant.

A companion petition for a preliminary injunction also filed Monday in Lackawanna County Court by the E.B. Jermyn Lodge No. 2 Fraternal Order of Police aimed to cancel testing scheduled for Saturday for the promotional exams.

Efforts on Friday to contact the administration of Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti were unsuccessful. By the end of the business day Friday, the court docket of the case did not contain any formal replies by the defendants, or any orders issued by a judge regarding the relief sought by the police union, and it was unclear if testing remained scheduled.

The union seeks to use arbitration of a grievance as an administrative remedy to the situation, but that would take more time than is available before testing would occur, and an injunction is necessary because an arbitrator could not retroactively grant relief to the union, the complaint said.

Some of the lawsuit’s allegations include:

• The supervisory ranks of sergeant and lieutenant must be filled in accord with civil service rules, which require promotions filled only by competitive examinations. Numerous agreements, amendments, side letters, memoranda of understanding and arbitration awards form the labor contract. A 2014 agreement requires that no two tests can be administered within 45 days of one another.

• On Dec. 8, promotional exams for sergeant and lieutenant were announced to be held Feb. 7, without specifying which kind of sergeant or lieutenant positions, as there are several of each. “No time or location was indicated and to date have not been so.” Multiple officers would be eligible to take both promotional examinations but would not be able to do so at the same time.

• The issue was raised with the commission Jan. 16. It agreed to place the matter on its next agenda. However, on Jan. 30, it was learned that due to the expiration of commission members’ terms, no new commission had been approved by Scranton City Council and no meeting of the commission to address the issue could be held before the Feb. 7 testing date. The union on Jan. 30 requested the testing be postponed and initiated a grievance.

• The defendants violated the labor contract by not delineating which positions were being tested for and not holding the exams at least 45 days apart.

The lawsuit seeks to maintain the status quo until the matter can be dealt with through the state Act 111 arbitration process. The union is represented in the legal action by the Welby Stoltenberg Cimballa & Cook law firm of Harrisburg.