Arbitrator Awards Reinstatement and Back Pay to Hotel Employee Represented by UNITE HERE, Local 26

The Courtyard Marriott of South Boston terminated a housekeeper/room attendant represented by UNITE HERE Local 26 because she made a short cell phone video of a co-worker. The Grievant was recording the co-worker's violation of a work rule, in order to show that Hotel was not uniformly enforcing its policies.

Instead of discussing the Grievant's concerns about inconsistent application of work rules, the Hotel terminated her, claiming that her recording violated a work rule. The Hotel never showed that the Grievant ever received Hotel policies in the only language that she could speak -- Spanish.

The neutral Arbitrator agreed that termination was an excessive penalty for violation of a policy that the Grievant did not know about. The penalty also was not justified by her work history or the alleged seriousness of the offense. The Arbitrator ordered the the Hotel to reinstate the employee, reduce the discipline to a written warning and make the Grievant whole for the wages and benefits she lost as a result of the termination. Attorney Patrick Bryant represented Local 26 in this arbitration.