Appeal Board Was Bound by Arbitrator’s Findings of Fact Re: Employee’s Serious Safety-Rule Violations

The Third Department reversed the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board after the Board determined petitioner should not have been terminated for rule violations.  Pursuant to arbitration under a collective bargaining agreement, the arbitrator had made factual findings re: serious rule violations.  The Third Department explained that the Board was bound by those factual findings:

[“While the Board was free to make ‘independent additional factual findings’ and draw its own independent conclusion as to whether claimant’s behavior rose to the level of disqualifying misconduct for purposes of entitlement to unemployment insurance benefits, it was also bound by the [arbitrator’s] ‘factual findings regarding claimant’s conduct and [her] conclusion’ that claimant had” committed serious violations of safety rules … . The arbitrator here found that claimant had committed grave violations of the employer’s policies that had endangered the safety of his passengers, violations that were rendered even more egregious by the fact that he had previously been disciplined for similar conduct. The Board, in contrast, inexplicably found that claimant had “substantially complied with” the employer’s policies and made no effort to consider claimant’s behavior within the context of his prior disciplinary history. Thus, as the Board improperly contradicted factual findings of the arbitrator, remittal is necessary for it to “reconsider[] upon appropriate findings” … . Matter of Boretsky …, 2014 NY Slip Op 07414, 3rd Dept 10-30-14