Labor & Employment Law

Employer Cannot Require That Employee Waive Rights Under A Collective Bargaining Agreement Without Notice To Union

Employer Cannot Require That Employee Waive Rights Under A Collective Bargaining Agreement Without Notice To Union
Source: Adjunct Law Prof Blog; http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/adjunctprofs/

Reproduced with permission. Copyright © 2008, Mitchell H. Rubinstein, Esq., Adjunct Professor of Law, St. Johns Law School and New York Law School, All rights reserved.

Legal Services of Northern California, 352 NLRB No. 66 (May 16, 2008), is an interesting and important case. The major issue in the case was whether the union was entitled to a copy of a separation concerning a unit members termination. The Board held that the union was entitled to this information. It noted that the agreement contained a waiver of the right to assert claims under the CBA and the union was apparently not given this notice. As the Board stated:

Here, the document submitted under seal to the judge includes an explicit waiver of Dovey?s rights under the collective-bargaining agreement. As the Board has previously found, an employer violates the Act when it requires or solicits employees to waive their rights under a collective-bargaining agreement without the union?s knowledge or assent. See generally Resco Products, 331
NLRB 1546, 1547?1548 (2000) (finding that employer violated Section 8(a)(5) by requiring that employees waive, without union?s knowledge or consent, contractual vacation pay benefits). See also Kaiser-Permanente Medical Care Program, 248 NLRB 147 (1980) (employer violated the Act by soliciting employees to waive their contractual right to overtime pay in exchange for preferred work schedules). Accordingly, the Respondent is required to provide the Union with a copy of this information.
We therefore find that the separation agreement executed between Dovey and the Respondent affects mandatory subjects of bargaining, and constitutes information that is relevant to the Union?s role as the employees? collective-bargaining representative.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on June 10, 2008 (boomark / email).