Arbitrator Orders Employer to Pay Moving Expenses to IBEW-Represented Employee

Local 2327 of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with FairPoint Communications, Inc. that provides moving expenses to employees when they are transferred to a new home base. Attorneys Alfred Gordon O'Connell and James Hykel persuaded an arbitrator to enforce this language after FairPoint denied moving expenses to an outside plant technician (OPT) represented by Local 2327.

Here, FairPoint transferred an OPT from his home base in New Hampshire to one in Maine. This was the second involuntary transfer in a year. Still, FairPoint denied moving expenses to the OPT, claiming that the difference was insignificant because the change was only 5 miles. The arbitrator agreed that FairPoint's denial was arbitrary and not based in fact and thus awarded the employee more than $10,000 in moving expenses. For one, the parties never discussed limiting this reimbursement to a five-mile limit. In addition, FairPoint ignored evidence that the involuntary transfer resulted in a significant inconvenience, causing the employee's daily commute to increase anywhere from 25-to-45 minutes.