Arbitrator orders an end to outsourcing of call center jobs

Attorney Al Gordon of Pyle Rome obtained a strong and definitive decision from Arbitrator Michael C. Ryan ordering that FairPoint Communications end its practice of outsourcing certain service representative jobs out of the country and to other regions of the U.S. The win brings dozens of jobs back to the IBEW-represented employees in Maine and prevents the Company from moving jobs outside of the bargaining unit in the future.

The jobs at issue were formerly part of the IBEW-represented workforce at Verizon New England. When FairPoint purchased the Maine telephone operations from Verizon in 2008, FairPoint decided to "temporarily" outsource certain call center-based service rep. work to Canada while the Company got its new systems up and running. After years of shuffling this work between different contractors, the Company told the Union it would no longer be bringing the work to Maine as it had promised.

IBEW, Local 2327 grieved the Company's action as an unlawful "transfer of jobs" under the parties' CBA, and on March 23, 2012, Arbitrator Ryan ordered that the work be returned to the bargaining unit where it belongs. The Company had argued that the limitation on transfers of jobs only applied to transfers within the Company, but the arbitrator disagreed, finding that the Company is barred from transferring jobs to any entity that is not a signatory to the parties' collective bargaining agreement. The victory significantly bolsters the contractual subcontracting protections for unionized workers.