Recent Developments

A hearing officer of the Massachusetts Division of Labor Relations has determined that the Town of Athol violated state labor law when it refused to provide information requested by the Permanent Association of Fire Fighters, Local 1751 IAFF. Attorney Patrick Bryant represented Local 1751. The information concerned a complaint by a citizen about the conduct of a probationary fire fighter. Public employers have an obligation to provide information that is relevant for a union to perform its role as bargaining agent of employees.

The National Labor Relations Act entitles most employees to discuss wages with their co-workers. This law applies to settings where a union represents employees, where employees are seeking to form a union, or where no one is even discussing or desiring a union.

In the attached case, an employee procured a raise above schedule, but was told to not discuss the wage with co-workers. The Employer believed he did and fired him.

The National Labor Relations Act generally entitles most private-sector workers to join forces with co-workers about workplace conditions. The NLRA protects the right to organize and the right to communicate about organizing. The National Labor Relations Board once held that the NLRA “necessarily encompasses the right effectively to communicate with one another regarding self-organization at the jobsite."

Employees represented by a union in the private sector generally have a right to have their union accompany them to a disciplinary interview. This is known in labor law as a "Weingarten" right, after a famous case of same name before the National Labor Relations Board. This Weingarten right means that certain employers must respect an employee's request for assistance from their union. The employer cannot order the employee to speak without a union representative or discipline the employee for invoking this right.

Attorney Patrick Bryant persuaded an arbitrator that an employee represented by 1199SEIU-Massachusetts is entitled to shift differential on the accrued vacation leave she received after retirement.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts had no basis last December to terminate or even discipline a chaplain represented by SEIU Local 509, concludes a neutral arbitrator after a hearing. Attorney Patrick N. Bryant represented Local 509 in this proceeding.

In order to better serve Pyle Rome's large and growing base of union clients in Vermont and to provide more complete representation to those unions and their employee members, Pyle Rome Attorney Patrick Bryant recently obtained his license to practice law in Vermont. Attorney Bryant already is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and Oregon. Bryant will continue to focus his practice exclusively on the rights of workers and their collective bargaining representatives in Massachusetts, Vermont, Oregon and across New England.

In the past week, adjuncts at St. Michael's, Burlington, and Champlain Colleges voted overwhelmingly to join the growing Adjunct Action movement fostered by SEIU. Attorney Patrick Bryant represented SEIU before the National Labor Relations Board.

Super Lawyers, a lawyer rating service involving peer nominations and third-party evaluations, just recognized several Pyle Rome Ehrenberg, PC, attorneys as worthy in the fields of representing employees and labor unions.

A neutral arbitrator recently agreed that an employer could not persuasively establish that an employee intended to deceive the employer by incidentally placing a co-worker’s evaluation into her professional portfolio. Attorney Tod Cochran, who argued the case for the Service Employees International Union, Local 509, persuaded the arbitrator to reinstate the teacher and make her whole.