Opinion ID: 534517
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Factual Background and the Board's First Decision

Text: 4 Consolidated Freightways is engaged in the business of intrastate and interstate transportation of goods and materials by truck. Charles Hennessey was hired by Consolidated as a truck driver in 1977. Two years later, on March 22, 1979, Consolidated discharged Hennessey after he refused to drive a tractor that he believed to be unsafe. Hennessey filed a grievance challenging his discharge and requesting reinstatement with full backpay and health and welfare benefits. On May 1, 1979, the grievance was heard before the Joint State Committee, an arbitration panel established under the collective bargaining agreement between Consolidated and Hennessey's union. Consolidated Freightways, 253 N.L.R.B. 988, 990-94 (1981). The parties later stipulated that Hennessey's grievance was covered by the collective bargaining agreement; that Consolidated, the union, and Hennessey had agreed to be bound by the Committee's decision; and that the entire grievance and arbitration procedure was fair and regular in all respects. Id. at 994. 5 After hearing the arguments of the parties, the Committee ordered that Hennessey be reinstated to his former job with full seniority and benefits, but without backpay, and that a final warning letter be placed in Hennessey's file. Id. Under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, Consolidated may not suspend or discharge an employee until at least one warning notice of the particular complaint at issue has been given (except for drug and alcohol use and certain other causes for discharge). Warning letters remain in effect for a maximum of nine months. Thus if he had accepted the offer, Hennessey would have been subject, for a limited period, to immediate discharge if he again engaged in the conduct for which he was first dismissed. Hennessey did not learn about the warning letter until well after he had refused an offer of reinstatement from Consolidated, explaining that he would not return without backpay. 6 On July 11, 1979, Hennessey filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB. After a hearing, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found that Consolidated had discharged Hennessey for engaging in protected activity in violation of section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (Act), 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1) (1982). 253 N.L.R.B. at 995. The ALJ declined to defer to the arbitration award because by putting Hennessey under the gun of a 'warning letter,'  the award fails to remedy the alleged unfair labor practices. Id. at 994. The ALJ then determined that Consolidated's obligation to reinstate Hennessey continues until a proper offer of reinstatement is made. Id. Asserting that the accrual of backpay liability is not terminated until a valid, unconditional reinstatement offer is made, the ALJ ordered that Hennessey be offered unconditional reinstatement with full backpay. Id. at 995. 7 Consolidated filed exceptions to the ALJ's conclusion that its reinstatement offer was conditional, but not to his finding that Consolidated had engaged in an unfair labor practice or his refusal to defer to the arbitration award. Id. at 988 n. 1. In a Decision and Order dated January 5, 1981, the Board agreed that the warning letter had rendered Consolidated's reinstatement offer conditional, and therefore invalid, and affirmed the ALJ's decision. Id. at 988.