Court Opinion

ID: 9757279
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:28:43.047283+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:37.056769
License: Public Domain

WILENTZ, C.J.,
dissenting.
The majority is obviously convinced that this employee should have been fired. What the majority has forgotten is that when the employer and the employees’ association agreed upon arbitration of the wrongful discharge issue, it was the arbitrator’s conclusion that became important, and the Court’s conviction irrelevant.
The majority finds that the arbitrator decided that there was “just cause” for discharge and that the issue, therefore, is whether the arbitrator, having found “just cause,” has the power, despite that finding, to deprive the employer of its consequent clear right to discharge the employee. One would think the Court would hesitate to attribute to a presumably experienced, intelligent, and impartial arbitrator, such a ludicrous decision, namely, that even though he found the employer had “just cause” to discharge plaintiff, and even though the contract explicitly allowed discharge under such circumstances, the employer nevertheless could not discharge this employee.
That is not, however, what the arbitrator found. A fair, common sense, reading of his opinion is that he found that ordinarily (“normally”) this employee’s conduct would constitute “just cause” for discharge, but given the particular circumstances surrounding that conduct, including the employer’s accompanying acts, “just cause” did not exist. Those circumstances included the projection by the employer of “a sense of tacit approval” of the employee’s conduct, the employer’s failure to make clear, either by explicit prior warning (with or without some prior discipline short of discharge) that repetition of that or similar conduct would result in his discharge, and the employer’s failure to act within what the arbitrator thought was a reasonable period. It was the combination, the aggregate, of all these circumstances, that led to the arbitrator’s *400decision that discharge was not warranted, i.e., that “just cause” did not exist.
Noting that the arbitrator has said that “grievant’s total conduct ... merits discharge for cause,” the Court disregards the intervening clause (“grievant’s total conduct in the normal context of his responsibilities to the Employer merits discharge for cause”) and its obvious meaning — made clear beyond doubt by the succeeding paragraphs of the arbitrator’s opinion. The arbitrator is saying that if what happened here was in the “normal context” of plaintiff’s work, there would be just cause for discharge; but since it was not normal (no prior warnings, no prior lesser discipline, instead employer inaction conveying to the employee a sense of tacit approval) there was no just cause, i.e., the “succession of facts” did “not merit[] discharge.” (Paraphrase of end of portion of arbitrator’s opinion quoted ante at 388.) This interpretation by the Court drains the arbitrator’s opinion of its true meaning, and, having thus drained it, the Court can go on to conclude that the arbitrator’s award does not “draw its essence from the parties’ agreement.”
In dealing with progressive discipline, the Court notes that the Agreement does not explicitly provide any requirement of progressive discipline and concludes that, since the Agreement does not allow the arbitrator to add to, alter, etc., the Agreement, the arbitrator was without power to impose a “progressive discipline” requirement. Included among the Court’s premises, indeed its major premise, is that an arbitrator may not consider progressive discipline unless the agreement explicitly provides for it, absent some custom in the industry or practice by the particular employer. We have found no case anywhere with a holding that prohibits an arbitrator, in determining whether “just cause” exists, from considering whether there was prior warning or, what amounts to the same thing, prior or lesser discipline (“progressive discipline”).
The Court reaches this legal conclusion on the basis of cases that do not so hold, the cases being used by the Court not for *401their holdings but rather for the example they provide of collective bargaining agreements that did explicitly deal with “progressive discipline.” In other' words the Court uses its experience (limited apparently to the four cases cited ante at 395) as the basis for its legal conclusion that the omission of any mention of progressive discipline in a collective bargaining agreement prevents the arbitrator from considering it, since the practice, according to the Court, in connection with collective bargaining agreements is to include progressive discipline in the agreement whenever the parties intend it to be considered by the arbitrator. That, I submit, is a somewhat lean experience to warrant the Court’s conclusion, with some confidence, as a matter of law, that if progressive discipline is not explicitly mentioned, the arbitrator cannot consider it. Actually there is no evidence whatsoever in this record that would justify the Court in coming to any conclusion about the significance of the fact that it is not mentioned in a collective bargaining agreement, except the evidence found in the arbitrator’s opinion that a requirement of prior warning, including “progressive discipline,” is regularly regarded by arbitrators as implicit in “just cause” disputes. That evidence is not only nowhere contradicted but, given the presumed experience of the arbitrator, it is persuasive.
The arbitrator’s opinion is based on the premise that the presence or absence of prior warnings may determine whether an employee’s otherwise wrongful conduct constitutes just cause for discharge. As the arbitrator said in his opinion:
An employer, including the College, may not stand idly by while an employee accumulates a sufficient number of demerits to earn his walking papers____ In the labor-management process, the employer may not quietly warehouse violations and then act, without prior warning. The inaction of the employer while the worker operates by rules contrary to standards, projects a sense of tacit approval, a license to do as one pleases without regard to job responsibility. In that sense, the employer contributes to ongoing breach by the worker, projecting false security to the latter.
Thus in the instant proceeding the Grievant moved from one transgression to another, without fear or concern. The Management silence became an invitation to the next act of disregard for the worker obligation to the employer.
*402The only context in this case in which any question can be raised about the arbitrator’s right to consider “progressive discipline” is in connection with the arbitrator’s “just cause” determination: in determining “just cause” may the arbitrator consider whether the employer made it clear to the employee that if certain conduct (or similar conduct) were repeated, he would be fired? It was in that context, namely, in deciding whether or not there was just cause, that the arbitrator considered these matters.
The first point that should be noted in this connection is that the arbitrator did not rule that before this employer fires anyone, he must impose prior lesser discipline (“progressive discipline”) for the same or similar misconduct. All the arbitrator noted was the obvious unfairness — unjust cause — of allowing an employee continually to engage in wrongful conduct without ever warning him of the consequences, and then, upon a particular repetition, firing him — committing “industrial capital punishment” — when the employee had no reason to believe this would happen. It takes no great analytic power to perceive that the concept of “just cause” necessarily includes — unless the parties expressly exclude it — the question of the employee’s prior knowledge of what is expected of him, which, in turn, will most often involve questions of whether he was told (“warned”) and sometimes more strongly “told” (“disciplined”) that a certain kind of behavior, if engaged in or repeated, would lead to discharge.
An act that, by itself, may not constitute “just cause” for discharge (failing to return a hammer to the tool rack, leaving it instead on the workbench) will, if repeated after clear warning that repetition will lead to discharge, become “just cause,” or, if innocuous enough, may require prior lesser discipline (“progressive discipline”) before its repetition constitutes “just cause.” There are other actions — stealing the employer’s property — that are so obviously threatening, not only to the employer but to the entire workforce, as to constitute “just cause” without any prior warning. The extent of prior similar acts, *403without warning or discipline by the employer; the tacit approval of such conduct by the employer; the employer’s general dealings with the employee, and with all employees; the kind of employment, the number of years of service — these and innumerable other factors, including, not in the least, the impact of discharge or lesser discipline on labor relations — all of these play a legitimate and important part in the arbitrator’s “just cause” determination. It cannot be seriously contended that a collective bargaining agreement must explicitly allow for their consideration in order for the arbitrator to weigh them in determining just cause.
What the arbitrator noted here was that there was nothing— neither prior warning nor prior lesser discipline — that would let this employee know that his job was in jeopardy. The arbitrator did not say that prior lesser discipline (“progressive discipline”) was required (either here or in any other instance) but rather that “just cause” here, as in all work places, requires that the employee have good reason to believe that a certain kind of behavior will jeopardize his employment.
There is no question but that, unless explicitly excluded, an arbitrator having the power to determine whether a discharge is warranted by “just cause” has the further power, where he finds there is no just cause, to impose lesser discipline. The majority apparently agrees. Ante at 394. With the express power given here to decide “just cause” without any limitation, and the implied power to impose any lesser discipline where he finds the misconduct does not constitute “just cause,”- the arbitrator must have the implied power to consider any and all circumstances that he deems relevant to the questions of “just cause” and appropriate discipline, in order that he may wisely exercise this broad power to select one of many permissible dispositions. By implicitly empowering the arbitrator to impose lesser discipline, the parties have in effect allowed him to impose a requirement of “progressive discipline” on an ad hoc basis before discharge will be permissible. That is precisely *404what the arbitrator does when he finds there is no just cause for discharge, but that there is cause for lesser discipline.
Both the Court and the employer stress the lift incident, and strongly challenge the arbitrator’s conclusion that “just cause” might have existed at that moment, but that by the time the employer acted it would no longer be just to discharge this employee. Even there, however, the Court’s acceptance of that argument fails to accord to the arbitrator the power given to him by the parties to decide “just cause.” The facts and circumstances surrounding misconduct, relevant to whether “just cause” existed at a particular time, may include not only acts prior thereto but acts thereafter. The man who fails to return the hammer to the rack after repeated warnings and even after prior lesser discipline may be found to be rightfully discharged immediately upon the most recent transgression, but wrongfully if the discharge is attempted one year later.
The chronology of events, each followed by the employer’s silence, puts the matter in proper perspective: the kind of misconduct brought before the arbitrator had apparently been going on “for a number of years, leaving at will with never a word of disapproval” from management, the specific misconduct here being that on August 26 he falsified time records — no warning, no discipline; September 14, falsified time records and was insubordinate concerning such records — no warning, no discipline; the same day, September 14, used College property for personal purposes without authorization — no warning, no discipline; September 16, threatened to lower lift on supervisor — no warning, no discipline; September 17, falsified time records — no warning, no discipline; September 24, falsified time records — no warning, no discipline; the same day (September 24) left College equipment (welding equipment and tools) unattended after leaving early — no warning, no discipline; September 29, falsified time records — no warning, no discipline; October 8, discharged.
*405While the accuracy of the explanation for the delay in discharging plaintiff after the lift incident is questionable (it is not mentioned in the arbitrator’s' opinion and, since there is no transcript of the proceedings before the arbitrator, its accuracy requires more documentation than the assertion of counsel), the important point is that the significance of the delay, including its explanation, is a matter for the arbitrator to determine, not counsel or this Court. Given the combination of circumstances, including, without doubt, the employer’s tacit approval, which encouraged the plaintiff to move from one transgression to the next, the incident under the lift took on a different color, and the arbitrator decided that while it was the most serious, it was just one of many instances of wrongdoing as to which there had been no prior warning and all of which did not add up to “just cause.”
As noted above, whether “just cause” exists at a given moment may depend not only on what went before but also on what went after that moment. Delaying an employer’s response to employee misconduct may be deemed unfair not only by the affected employee but by the entire workforce. They may find it unfair for the employer, who might otherwise have just cause to fire the employee, to wait around, perhaps making up its mind, perhaps wanting to have some leverage over the employee, perhaps waiting for other causes to bolster its case, for inordinate periods of time before acting; the idea of “waiver” is not limited to lawyers and judges; the workforce may regard it as cruel to allow a worker to continue on the job believing that for some reason the employer has decided not to exercise the right of discharge that may have existed and then, out of the blue, “lower the boom.” The factor of delay can be especially significant when there has never been a prior warning that discharge may result.
So while the majority may think the delay here was reasonable (even though there is no basis in the record before us to think so), it was well within the arbitrator’s power to conclude otherwise in the context of all of the facts and circumstances *406before him. The arbitrator’s responsibility to consider all such facts and circumstances is consistent with his critical role in fostering stability in labor-management relations. The arbitrator’s role is an integral component of the collective bargaining process. The wisdom of according deference to the arbitrator’s exercise of discretion in a grievance proceeding is widely recognized:
The labor arbitrator’s source of law is not confined to the express provisions of the contract, as the industrial common law — the practices of the industry and the shop — is equally a part of the collective bargaining agreement although not expressed in it. The labor arbitrator is usually chosen because of the parties' confidence in his knowledge of the common law of the shop and their trust in [his] personal judgment to bring to bear considerations which are not expressed in the contract as criteria for judgment. The parties expect that his judgment of a particular grievance will reflect not only what the contract says but, insofar as the collective bargaining agreement permits, such factors as the effect upon productivity of a particular result, its consequence to the morale of the shop, his judgment whether tensions will be heightened or diminished. For the parties’ objective in using the arbitration process is primarily to further their common goal of uninterrupted production under the agreement, to make the agreement serve their specialized needs. The ablest judge cannot be expected to bring the same experience and competence to bear upon the determination of a grievance, because he cannot be similarly informed. [United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U.S. 574, 581-82, 80 S.Ct. 1347, 1352-53, 4 L.Ed.2d 1409, 1417 (I960).]
See Cox, “Reflections Upon Labor Arbitration,” 72 Harv.L.Rev. 1482, 1493-95 (1959); Shulman, “Reason, Contract, and Law in Labor Relations,” 68 Harv.L.Rev. 999, 1004-05 (1955).
The dispute almost universally committed to arbitration in collective bargaining agreements is whether the employer had just cause to discharge an employee. No issue is more important to the parties. What the parties want is swift and fair disposition of that dispute by those with sound knowledge of the workplace and labor relations. Their ultimate goal is to assure that such disputes will do as little damage to their relations as possible; indeed their hope is that the arbitrator’s resolution may even improve labor relations at the workplace. The Court has forgotten these fundamental objectives today; it has also forgotten the rule that requires us to give great deference to arbitration, a deference that necessarily includes a *407sympathetic rather than a hostile reading of the arbitrator’s opinion. Today’s decision is an unfortunate exception to this Court’s recognition of the desirability of arbitration in labor relations and of the superior wisdom and experience of arbitrators in determining disputes in that field.
For reversal — Justices CLIFFORD, HANDLER, POLLOCK, O’HERN and GARIBALDI — 5.
For Affirmance — Chief Justice WILENTZ and Justice STEIN — 2.