Understanding Article 44

The Grievance and Arbitration Process

Article 44 of the Faculty Association Contract, deals with grievance procedures. The term “grievance” means a “complaint” by any person covered by the Contract. Specifically, the grievance must be a “violation, misinterpretation, or inequitable application” of one or more provisions of the contract and/or the Board of Trustee’s Policy Manual. Termination of employment is not included under the grievance procedures in our Contract. Rather, Article 7 in the Contract details the due process procedures of termination.

The grievance process works in steps.

Step one. The “grievant” meets with his/her supervisor in an attempt to resolve the problem.

Step two. The grievant or the grievant’s representative (the FA grievance chair and/or a union officer) initiates a formal grievance by presenting it in writing to the immediate supervisor having the authority to make a decision to dispose of the grievance.

Step three. If the grievance has not been resolved at step two, the grievant or Faculty Association may appeal to the President within 10 working days after receiving a response to step two.

Step four. If the grievance has not been resolved at the conclusion of step three, it may be appealed to arbitration.

Additionally, at step four the matter comes before the Faculty Council to decide the following. First, is the case strong enough to be taken to arbitration? Second, if the ruling on the grievance is negative, what impact might that have upon contract interpretation? Council also considers the “scope” of the issue, meaning how broadly it will affect our members, not simply the grievant.

Faculty Council, for example, may vote to take an issue of contract interpretation to arbitration because we interpret the language of a specific article differently than management. Our goal here would be to “clarify” the language. Both parties would then be using an arbitrator to determine what interpretation would apply in the future.

Arbitration

At step four, if the Faculty Council agrees to move the grievance forward to arbitration, the arbitrator is selected. The selection of the arbitrator means Labor and Management cannot settle the dispute at step three and, according to the contract, agree that an arbitrator will make a ruling in the case. The arbitrator is the neutral third party both Labor and Management agree upon from a list of arbitrators in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association. This is how the arbitration procedure works. The appropriate parties give testimony before the arbitrator so that both sides of the dispute are heard. The arbitrator does not have the authority to add, subtract, or modify the provisions of the contract. Rather, the arbitrator interprets the contract language, and/or the facts surrounding the dispute, and makes a ruling. The ruling is called the “award” which is the written decision on the findings by the arbitrator. The award is then sent to both Labor and Management. (In the past, our arbitrators have rendered awards in 4-6 weeks). Contractually, the decision of the arbitrator is “binding”; that is, like it or not, the decision the arbitrator makes is the final word in the matter. (It is important to note here, that the College also has the same right to file a grievance against the Faculty Association and the steps for such an action are the same).

When the FA is facing a grievance issue, Labor and Management often come to a resolution that is satisfactory to both parties, thus avoiding an arbitration. These disputes are still considered grievances, but they’ve been settled at steps 1-3.

While arbitration is a valuable process, it is time consuming, and as mentioned, can introduce a new dimension to the contract that might benefit or harm either Labor or Management. Frequently, the cases that go to arbitration are complex and require a couple of days to be heard by the arbitrator. They also require extensive preparation that is handled for the FA by our NYSUT Labor Relations Specialist. Under the terms and conditions of our contract, the cost (which runs about $1500 a day) is equally divided between Labor and Management. NYSUT contributes half the cost of the FA share.

If you have additional questions about the grievance/arbitration processes, please give the FA a call.

                                                        -Marlene Goho, 2001