Recent RBS Victories-6th Circuit Vacates Decision, Permits Smoking Policy Change (Ed. Note – The following article appeared in the March 20 2006 edition of the Labor Relations Reporter of the Bureau of National Affairs, an influential publication for union and management attorneys. The employer was represented by Ross, Brittain & Schonberg Co. LPA.)
An arbitrator incorrectly found that Spero Electric Corp. could not unilaterally implement changes to its workplace policy on smoking, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided February 28 (Spero Elec. v. Electrical Workers IBEW Local 1377, 179 LRRM 2133, 6th Cir., No. 04-4142, 2/28/06).
The appeals court concluded that Spero’s implementation of a stricter policy on smoking in the workplace was a “routine alteration of the work rules” and not an amendment of the company’s collective bargaining agreement with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1377. The employer removed the four-step disciplinary procedure in favor of strict compliance with the employer’s no-smoking rule. The union claimed that it had already entered into an agreement with Spero to extend the procedure to the whole plant.
The arbitrator was wrong, the court said, to find that Spero’s unilateral implementation of the policy – and subsequent firing of a worker under the new rules – violated the parties’ collective bargaining agreement. Holding that a federal district court in Ohio had improperly enforced the arbitrator’s decision, the appeals court remanded the case to the lower court for further consideration. Judge Ryan concurred, saying that the arbitrator’s decision did not draw its essence from the agreement.
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