Recent Developments

An employer may promise to treat employees fairly and apply a progressive discipline policy. But without a union, employees have little recourse if an employer fails to abide by its own written policy. This case involving a terminated hotel worker illustrates the importance of having a union, especially UNITE HERE Local 26, to ensure the employer keeps its promises.

Boston School Police, despite what the name might suggest, are not armed law enforcement. Although they are charged with protecting the school children and routinely encounter persons carrying dangerous or lethal weapons, Boston School Police carry no weapons.

For many years, School Police Officers were permitted to carry OC Spray, a mild non-lethal weapon that provides some ability to repel physical threats. This device was used sparingly over the years - perhaps only three times in a 15-year period. But, for years, the School Police had no policy governing OC Spray.

An analysis by
Bloomberg BNA
has established that more more workers are voting Union Yes! under new election rules implemented by the National Labor Relations Board. In 2015, the NLRB revised longstanding rules on elections to make it harder for employers drag out an election through costly litigation.

In a unanimous opinion authored by retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, a panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed a complaint led by an anti-union group against the right of daycare workers to be represented by SEIU Local 509.

In 2013, Malden fire fighters starting receiving Longevity/Education and EMT stipends in their base pay, instead of in bi-annual lump sums. This change, which included increases to the stipends, also resulted in a long-sought increase by Malden Firefighters Union, Local 902 IAFF in the fire fighter’s hourly rate. However, when a lieutenant retired soon after this change, he only received the pro-rated amount of his stipends.

In 2013, workers of NuPath, a residential care agency for people with developmental disabilities, elected to form a union in order to improve their working conditions, with the aid of SEIU Local 509. A collective bargaining agreement negotiated by workers and Local 509 guaranteed that they would be protected from discharge unless NuPath proved it had “just cause.” Attorney Jillian Ryan persuaded a respected arbitrator that NuPath lacked just cause for termination of a respected direct care specialist with no history of discipline or performance problems.

On January 14, 2016, an arbitrator issued an award granting backpay to a MassDOT garage foreman who was denied a lateral transfer to a different location despite having more seniority than the employee who was granted the position. The grievant has since retired, so the more junior employee will be allowed to remain in the position while the grievant gets a backpay remedy.

Thanks to collective bargaining agreements negotiated by unions, employers cannot treat employees at will and discipline or discharge them upon whim or suspicion. Just cause language in most union contracts requires an employer to establish the employee knew what s/he was supposed to do (or refrain from doing), that the employer conducted a diligent and fair investigation into the allegations, and the discipline resulting from the investigation was consistent with the disciplinary records of the employee and of other employees found to have engaged in similar conduct.

In a strong and stunning victory on behalf of the Vermont State Employees' Association, Pyle Rome attorneys, working together with VSEA counsel, convinced the Vermont Supreme Court to overturn a 2014 decision by the Vermont Labor Relations Board that denied collective bargaining rights to prosecutors, victim advocates and support staff in the State's Attorneys Offices. Pyle Rome partner Al Gordon O'Connell was the lead attorney on the case and argued the matter before the Court.

Attorney Al Gordon O'Connell won an important arbitration decision on behalf of USW, Local 5696 to obtain out-of-title pay for an employee of MassDOT who was horribly misclassified during the merger between the Turnpike Authority and Mass. Highway. The decision draws on standard out-of-title pay principles applicable to all state collective bargaining agreements.