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ARBITRATOR DID NOT EXCEED HIS AUTHORITY IN FINDING THAT THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT REQUIRED DUE PROCESS PROTECTIONS, INCLUDING NOTICE, BEFORE AN EMPLOYEE COULD BE TERMINATED FOR ALLEGED MISCONDUCT, ARBITRATOR’S AWARD SHOULD HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the arbitration award in this employment matter should have been confirmed. The grievant was employed by the respondent town as a school crossing guard. Without notice, the town’s chief of police called the grievant to his office and fired her for alleged misconduct. The arbitrator determined the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) required limited due process protections, including notice, and found termination of the grievant was without just cause:

“[A]n arbitrator exceed[s] his [or her] power’ under the meaning of the statute where his [or her] award violates a strong public policy, is irrational or clearly exceeds a specifically enumerated limitation on the arbitrator’s power’ “… .

“Outside of these narrowly circumscribed exceptions, courts lack authority to review arbitral decisions, even where an arbitrator has made an error of law or fact’ ” … . “An arbitrator is not bound by principles of substantive law or rules of evidence, and may do justice and apply his or her own sense of law and equity to the facts as he or she finds them to be” … . The court lacks the power to review the legal merits of the award, or to substitute its own judgment for that of the arbitrator, “simply because it believes its interpretation would be the better one” … . …

The “for cause” language contained in the management rights provision expressly circumscribed respondent’s right to discipline or discharge the grievant. The arbitrator interpreted that language, consistent with arbitral precedent, as incorporating a just cause standard that encompasses a right to due process. We thus conclude that “the arbitrator merely interpreted and applied the provisions of the CBA, as [he] had the authority to do” … . Matter of Town of Greece Guardians’ Club, Local 1170 (Town of Greece), 2018 NY Slip Op 08775, Fourth Dept 12-21-18

 

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