Opinion ID: 500031
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Arbitration is Still Available to Appellants

Text: 128 Upon careful examination, it is clear that Congress did not intend to phase out arbitral redress for disputes involving preferential hiring under RITEA. When the evolving structure and purpose of 45 U.S.C. Sec. 797c is carefully examined, it is apparent that the sunsetting provision of that section was intended to eliminate the Central Register of Railroad Employment administered by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) and not to cut off the right to arbitration for disputes concerning preferential hiring. 13 129 45 U.S.C. Sec. 797 et seq., which corresponds to Title VII of the Northeast Rail Service Act of 1981, Pub.L. No. 97-35, 95 Stat. 643 (1981) (NRSA), was a part of the massive Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, Pub.L. No. 97-35, 95 Stat. 357 (1981) (OBRA) designed, at least at the outset, to drastically reduce the size and commitments of the federal government. 130 Title VII, part of the effort to privatize the failing Conrail, allowed the railroad to end onerous protective obligations that had been established by Title V of the Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, Pub.L. No. 93-236, 87 Stat. 985 (1973). Specifically, Title VII allowed the railroad to terminate some employees or employee benefits in exchange for specified cash payments. 131 Part of the transition that was accomplished by Title VII involved the creation of a central register of displaced railroad employees. The register was to be of limited duration and was designed to assist employees in securing their preferential hiring rights. See NRSA Sec. 704, 45 U.S.C. Sec. 797c. As originally introduced in Congress, Sec. 797c contained only the provisions found in subsections now codified (a) through (f). See H.R. 3488, 97th Cong., 1st Sess. Sec. 303 (introduced May 5, 1981); S. 1377, 97th Cong., 1st Sess. Secs. 413-4 (introduced June 17, 1981). Subsections (a) through (e) required the RRB to maintain a central register of displaced railroad employees to facilitate their reemployment and to assist in the implementation of preferential hiring rights. Subsection (f) was the sunset provision which allowed the RRB to end the registration apparatus within a reasonable time after the employee terminations allowed by NRSA. 132 It is important to note that subsection (g) of Sec. 797c, the arbitration provision at the heart of the present controversy, was not a coherent part of the legislative scheme of the original Sec. 797c, but only a last minute afterthought added later in conference. See H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 97-208, 1st Sess., 913 (1981), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1981, p. 396. It must be remembered that OBRA itself has long been noted for the vast legislative confusion engendered and the significant number of drafting oversights and errors that occurred as it wended its way through the Congress. Given this background, it is likely that any implication that Congress intended the right to arbitration for preferential hiring to end with this sunsetting provision was inadvertent. 133 This likelihood of inadvertency becomes a certainty when one examines the internal structure of Title VII. Title VII addresses a broad range of issues affected by the NRSA. 14 With only a few exceptions, it subjects disputes concerning these various topics to resolution under Sec. 714, 45 U.S.C. Sec. 797m, which provides for arbitration by an adjustment board under Sec. 3 of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. Sec. 153. Section 714 has no sunset provision. 134 The right to preferential hire was one of the few exceptions to arbitration under Sec. 797m, largely because the right to preferential hire was initially related to the central register maintained by the RRB. The only substantive difference between Sec. 797c(g), the arbitration provision at issue here, and Sec. 797m is that the former subjects the right to arbitration to a preliminary screening by the RRB, the board charged with maintaining the central register. The substantive arbitration of both types of disputes is eventually accomplished by an adjustment board under 45 U.S.C. Sec. 153. While the central register was in existence, it certainly made sense to subject preferential hiring claims to a preliminary screening by the RRB, which would be likely to have all the relevant information concerning these claims close at hand. Yet, the Congress could not have intended to cut off the right to arbitration completely to employees who had preferential hiring claims when the central register ceased to exist, particularly when arbitration was still available to those asserting grievances under almost all the other topic areas covered by Title VII. 135 We, therefore, find, as a matter of statutory interpretation, that the sunsetting provision of 45 U.S.C. Sec. 797c only applies to the maintenance of the Central Register of Employees required under Title VII and that claims involving preferential hiring of former Rock Island employees with the CNW remain subject to arbitration by an adjustment board under Sec. 3 of the Railway Labor Act, 45 U.S.C. Sec. 153.4. Conclusion 136
137 Given the fact that the right to arbitration under 45 U.S.C. Sec. 797c(g) still is open to appellants, we remand to the district court with directions to send the disputes under RITEA to be resolved by an adjustment board under section 3 of the Railway Labor Act. Moreover, the adjustment board should, at the same time, consider appellants' claims arising under the March 4th Agreement. 138
139 Because neither RITEA nor the March 4th Agreement has any specific period of limitations, we leave to the arbitrator the question of whether the claims of the non-hire appellants are barred by laches. 140 In deciding this issue, the arbitrator is directed to take into account the following factors. First, the arbitrator should consider the delay in seeking redress caused by the closing of the Rock Island locals by various internationals. In this regard, the arbitrator should determine whether the former Rock Island employees were adequately informed of their rights under RITEA and the March 4th Agreement. Specifically, he should determine whether there were false assurances made by union representatives to the effect that Rock Island grievances would be redressed and the effect such assurances might have had in delaying action by the Rock Island employees. 141 Second, the arbitrator should take into account the cumulative effect of the serious unfair representation by the internationals in terms of the March 4th appellants. Not only did the unions act unfairly in the negotiation of the implementation agreements but they also did not properly represent the former Rock Island employees in the arbitration. This unfairness by the internationals to the March 4th appellants may have convinced the non-hire appellants that it would be futile to process their claims through conventional channels because they believed they could not rely on their union representatives to adequately represent their interests.