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NLRB refuses to defer to arbitration
August 02, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

When will the NLRB defer to arbitration? When will they not?

Here's one case where they will not. United Cerebral Palsy of New York City (NLRB 07/27/2006).

The employer had two collective bargaining units, both represented by the same union, both with collective bargaining agreements.

The employer distributed an employee handbook to both unit and nonunit employees, with unit employees receiving a copy specifically designated for “unionized” employees. The employer gave no advance notice to the union of its intent to issue the handbook, nor did it negotiate over any handbook provisions that differed from terms and conditions specified in the collective bargaining agreements.

In its introductory section, entitled “About this Handbook,” the handbook states the following:

This handbook supersedes all previous ... Employee Handbooks, management memoranda and practices that may have been issued on subjects covered in the Handbook or in effect ... and is intended to incorporate individual policies that will be issued in the future. In case of a conflict ... , the [employer's] most recently issued policy will control.

The handbook set forth a complete set of work rules, many differing from the collective bargaining agreement.

The NLRB refused to defer to the decision of an arbitrator under Collyer Insulated Wire, 192 NLRB 837 (1971) and United Technologies Corp., 268 NLRB 557, 558 (1984), and found that the employer's unilateral changes, as set forth in the handbook, amounted to a rejection of the collective bargaining agreements.

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