Court Opinion

ID: 9508867
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 21:39:52.724158+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:40.710692
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE SHEEHY,
concurring specially:
The special concurrence of two Justices suggests that employers “must eliminate any reference to discrimination laws in labor agreements.” I must point out that an employee who is the victim of illegal discrimination has a right to sue independent of the employment contract. In the cited case of Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co. (1974), 415 U.S. 36, 94 S.Ct. 1011, 39 L.Ed.2d 147, the United States Supreme Court held that civil rights cannot be prospectively waived by contract, and indeed form no part of the collective-bargaining process. When an employee sues, the Supreme Court held, for a Ti-*487tie VII violation, even after losing at arbitration, he is asserting a right given to the employee by statute independent of the arbitration process, the employee being the only possible victim of discriminatory employment practices.
Thus, eliminating any reference in labor agreements to anti-discrimination laws will not change the right of employees to enforce such laws regardless of the collective-bargaining agreement.