Court Opinion

ID: 9717699
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:08:53.869544+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:54.696543
License: Public Domain

SIMONETT, Justice
(concurring specially)-
The public employee-veteran has a right to a Veteran’s Preference hearing. He also has a right under the collective bargaining contract to have the union contest his proposed discharge in grievance arbitration. There is no reason, however, why the employee should have the right to pursue both remedies. He can weigh the tactical advantages and disadvantages of each forum and then choose the procedure he prefers. We need not, however, decide in this case whether the employee's choosing of a Veteran’s Preference hearing should constitute a waiver of any right to arbitration because the union also has some rights here.
The collective bargaining contract grants the right to invoke the steps of the grievance-arbitration procedure to the respondent union. Presumably, the union insisted on this contract right not only because it represents the employee but because it represents the entire employee unit and, as the exclusive bargaining agent, has an interest in how the labor contract which it negotiated is administered. Cf. Bowen v. United States Postal Service, 459 U.S. 212, 103 S.Ct. 588, 74 L.Ed.2d 402 (1983); Eisen v. State, 352 N.W.2d 731 (Minn.1984) (a public employee has no right to appeal an unfavorable arbitration award in a discharge case where the union has decided not to appeal the award to district court). In other words, the union has a kind of dual interest, which is why it brings this lawsuit “for Itself and on Behalf of Its Member Employee Carl Hammerberg.” Hammer-berg is not, it might be noted, a named party to this proceeding.
Consequently, even though Hammerberg has requested and received his Veteran’s Preference hearing, it seems to me that the union is not precluded from pursuing its contract right to grievance-arbitration.1 *301The result is that Hammerberg gets two bites of the apple.
The result, it seems to me, is wasteful and confusing. There is no need to have two separate, independent discharge proceedings. The basic issue involved, regardless of which hearing is held, is whether the public employer has just cause to discharge the employee. The public employer should not be required to prove its case twice. Even respondent in its brief says, “employees and unions are no more anxious to go through repeated procedures than are employers.” It should be possible to devise a legislative solution that both preserves the employee’s right to choose his remedy for seeking reinstatement and recognizes the union’s interest, without having duplicative procedures. But under the wording of this collective bargaining contract and as the law now reads, it seems to me respondent is entitled to an arbitration hearing and, therefore, I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion.

. In the case of a civil service employee, PELRA expressly states such employee has an option of either the grievance procedure or a civil service appeal procedure and provides that "once a written grievance or appeal has been properly filed or submitted by the employee or on the employee’s behalf with his consent the employee’s right to pursue redress in the alternative manner is terminated.” Minn.Stat. § 179.70, *301subd. 1 (Supp.1983). In this instance, the legislature seems to require the union to abide by the employee’s option,