Labor – Just Cause for Termination 

Posted: 1:00 am Mon, November 9, 2009
By admin

Where the employer suspended an employee for timecard fraud; after the union filed a grievance, the employer asked the employee to attend an investigatory interview, but the employee declined to do so without a union representative; the employee’s suspension was then converted to a termination; and an arbitrator determined that the employee had committed timecard fraud but his termination was without “just cause” because it was in retaliation for the employee’s request that the union be at the meeting; the District Court concludes that the arbitrator’s award draws its essence from the collective bargaining agreement because, although the CBA allows an employee to be terminated for timecard fraud, the arbitrator determined that the employee was terminated for refusal to attend a meeting without a union representative and that refusal to attend the meeting was not “just cause.”

Even though the factual basis of the dispute might also be construed as an unfair labor practice within the jurisdiction of the NLRB, the arbitrator had jurisdiction over the claim because he limited his decision to interpretation of the CBA.