Mandatory Pre-dispute Arbitration Agreements Between Nursing Homes and Residents Banned

In a recent article on Sept. 28. 2016, the NYT reports on a recent rule issued by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services banning nursing homes receiving federal funding from requiring residents to sign pre-dispute arbitration agreements.  (U.S. Just Made it a Lot Less Difficult to Sue Nursing Homes). Arbitrator Lise Gelernter (NAA Member) comments on the rule.  Expanding on the NYT’s coverage, Arbitrator Gelernter’s comment makes clear that “the agency had no quarrel with the institution of arbitration per se, but rather with the abuses associated with the use of pre-dispute arbitration agreements.” *** In one part…

Football Discipline: Goodell and Arbitration

Voicing a perspective contrary to that expressed in a recent article by other Washington Post reporters who disapproved of police discipline arbitration systems and related decisions by labor arbitrators, the Post’s sports columnist Molly Jenkins reported on the current dispute involving Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott and the National Football League. The League suspended Elliott for six games on allegations of domestic abuse, a ruling that the National Football League Players Association appealed to arbitration. At arbitration, the NFL Commissioner’s designated arbitrator, a member of the NFL staff, upheld the suspension. Reporter Jenkins concluded in her analysis that, “The…

Developments in Interest Arbitration

In a Letter to the Editor published July 31, Arbitrator and former NAA President, Richard I. Bloch, responds to “Unions kill a smart arbitration proposal in Montgomery County” (The Washington Post’s editorial published July 28). The Post’s editorial attributed the wage increases experienced by public employees in Montgomery County in part to “an out-of-whack arbitration system … tilted in favor of public-employee unions,” noting that over the last 28 years, unions have prevailed in 80 percent of the disputes.   The editorial blames the concern that arbitrators have with being “blackballed by the unions” for these one-sided results.

Interest Arbitration Disputes On Both Sides of the Border

The following two recent news articles report on discussions about the merits of interest arbitration in the U.S. and Canada. Postal workers’ union refuses arbitration with Canada Post reports that the Canadian Union Postal Workers has “politely declined” the suggestion by Mary Ann Mihychuk, Labour Minister, to undergo binding arbitration as a means to avoid a potential work stoppage. Ocean City Council, Firefighters Union Spar Over Petition describes a dispute between the Career Firefighter Paramedics Association of Ocean City (Maryland), the Mayor, and the City Council over an ongoing petition drive by the union seeking to put a referendum for…

Hopefully…the end of an unfortunate episode

The  New York Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association has announced  that its ethics complaint against an arbitrator who served as a neutral  in its contract dispute with the City in 2015 has been dismissed. The announcement was covered in the New York Daily News. With rhetoric to match its  unprecedented public and personal attacks against the arbitrator the union expressed its disappointment. The Union’s tactics raised the ire of many local arbitrators who have refused to serve in its cases (an event covered in an earlier post on this site). According to the Daily News the accusations of a failure to…

Girvan, Deason and Borgida on Implicit Gender Bias on Labor Arbitration Decision

In an article published in Law & Human Behavior,  and for which the NAA Research and Education Fund provided financial support, Professor Erik Girvan (Oregon Law), Grace Deason (Wisconsin-La Crosse) and Eugene Borgida (Minnesota) explore the presence of gender bias on labor arbitration decisions. Brief Summary In The Generalizability of Gender Bias: Testing the Effects of Contextual, Explicit, and Implicit Sexism on Labor Arbitration Decisions, Girvan, et. al, begin by noting that while prior studies about how arbitrators’ attitudes influence their decisions have determined that arbitrators’ decisions are influenced by their values and political ideology, none has explored…

Interest arbitration and the jurisdiction of the arbitrator

Arbitrator Lise Gelenter (NAA Member) comments on a recent decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacating an arbitration award: At first glance, the United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent decision concerning the limits of an interest arbitrator’s[1] powers appears non-controversial.  Hamilton Park Health Care Center Ltd, v. 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East (3rd Cir., 4/1/16).  The court held that the parties had the power to set the arbitrator’s jurisdiction and that their agreement had authorized the arbitrator to issue a multi-year award.  This is totally consistent with the Supreme Court’s…

Group of New York City Arbitrators Drop Major Public Sector Client

In a rare but fully explained collective action, twenty-seven Arbitrators on the rosters of the New York City Office of Collective Bargaining and New York State Public Employment Relations Board have indicated they will not work with the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association (“PBA”) on any future arbitration cases. In the letter, dated March 24, 2016, the Arbitrators addressed the PBA’s public expression of dissatisfaction with an interest arbitration decision involving their union.  While not identified, it is thought the letter references an interest arbitration decision issued by Howard Edelman late last year.  Descriptions of the PBA’s actions in the letter…

Justice Scalia and Arbitration

A short and interesting article in the March 7, 2016 issue of the New Yorker reminds us of the role that the late Justice Antonin Scalia played in the development of the law of arbitration. In “Courting Business“, James Surowiecki notes that Justice Scalia’s death is likely to have the greatest impact on what some scholars note is a decades-long trend of corporate-friendly decisions by the US Supreme Court.  Mr. Surowiecki points to two recent Court’s decisions on arbitration A.T. & T. v. Concepcion and American Express v. Italian Colors, as examples.  The Court’s majority opinions in both of…

NAA member publishes Op-ED in LA Times: “Quit bashing arbitration”

Read the full LA Times Op-ED here: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1109-goldman-arbitration-20151109-story.html