Labor & Employment Law

Arbitration award vacated where employee violated "Last Chance Agreement"

Yakima Police Patrolman's Assn, ___N.W.2d___ ( Wash. Ct. App, January 8, 2009), is an interesting public sector arbitration decision.

The court held that a police officer was properly terminated for violating the terms of a "last chance agreement" and the court affirmed a trial court's order vacating an arbitration award.

The officer, who was placed on administrative leave and diagnosed as suffering from severe and recurrent major depression and alcohol abuse, violated directives to not contact a co-worker with whom he had been in a relationship and for using a police badge in order to waive a cover charge at a nightclub.

While recognizing that labor arbitration awards are afforded substantial deference, the court agreed with the city that, the arbitrator exceeded his authority by altering the terms of the Last Chance Agreement.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on February 18, 2009 (boomark / email).