KTJ Wins Arbitration Award For Village In Labor Dispute - 8/3/2009
[News] Labor & Employment Law, Municipal Law
KTJ attorneys obtained a favorable labor arbitration decision for the Village of Maywood, on allegations that the Village of Maywood improperly dismissed a union-covered employee. The union filed a grievance claiming that he was improperly terminated from his job in the Village Public Work's Department after an incident in which it was alleged that he threatened his supervisor. The union argued that the Village did not have just cause for the termination and that the Village did not follow the contractual procedures for dismissal. After taking the case to the Circuit Court on the issue of whether arbitration was appropriate, filing a motion to dismiss the grievances for lack of an arbitrable dispute and arguing at the arbitration hearing that the matter was not arbitrable, the Village successfully argued in its post-hearing brief that the Union's year-long delay in prosecuting its grievance operated as a waiver thereof under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement. The Honorable Arbitrator Anita Rowe agreed with the Village and held that the union waived its member's rights to press his grievances by delaying the grievance procedure for a year.