Court Orders Employer to Arbitrate Grievance Challenging Policy That Was Unilaterally Implemented After Bargaining

In IBEW Local 1393 v. Clark County REMC, the employer refused to arbitrate the Union’s grievance protesting an employee residency policy as unreasonable because it said it bargained with the Union to impasse over the policy, giving it the right to unilaterally implement the policy under the National Labor Relations Act. The Union, represented by David Vlink, sued to compel the employer to arbitrate the grievance.

            The Court found that the issue of whether the employer bargained over the policy to impasse was irrelevant because the issue was not the process by which the employer implemented the policy, but whether it violated the union contract. Since the Union asserted the policy violated several provisions of the contract, the Court held that the grievance was subject to arbitration for an arbitrator to decide whether the policy violated the union contract.

            The takeaway from this decision is that even if an employer bargains with the union over a policy during the term of the contract, if there is no agreement and the employer puts it into effect anyway, the union maintains the right to challenge the policy under the grievance and arbitration provisions of the contract.

            The Court’s decision can be found here.