Federal Appeals Court Affirms Award Against Tech Compay For Subcontracting IBEW Local 2327 Work
It is a hallmark of labor law that an arbitration decision is supposed to be "final and binding" on the parties, to ensure that resolution is quick and litigation expenses are relatively minimal. Many employers effectively repudiate that promise by appealing decisions they do not like to state or federal court. Attorney Alfred Gordon O'Connell persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to reject FairPoint's appeal of an arbitration panel's ruling that the tech company impermissibly transferred bargaining unit work. This is the second federal court to rule in favor of IBEW Local 2327, AFL-CIO on this issue.
The grounds for a court reversal of an arbitration decision are extremely narrow. As the First Circuit acknowledged, the standard is "among the narrowest known in law." Courts are not concerned with whether an arbitrator's finding of facts, interpretation of contract or application of law are correct. It is only concerned with "determining if the arbitrator's interpretation of the contract is in any way plausible."
The Employer tried arguing that this deferential standard of review did not apply because the collective bargaining agreement expressly prevented an arbitrator from modifying contract terms. The Court rejected this claim, stating that boilerplate prohibition of contract modification does not require a court to do anything beyond determining whether the arbitration decision "drew its essence" from the contract.
Given the narrow standard of review, the Court had little difficulty determining that the arbitration panel drew its essence from contract language that prohibited the Employer from permanently transferring Union-represented "jobs to any entity which is not a signatory to this agreement."
The affirmance of the arbitration award means that the Company remains obligated to "to return all [disputed] work and to rehire any Union
employees wrongfully laid off during the relevant time period."
