Category: Weingarten

A recent Illinois case analyzed the options available to an employer once an employee who is being interviewed asserts the right to representation under the Weingarten rule. The case involved Elgin Community College police officer Lorie Hermesdorf, who was a member of a bargaining unit represented by the Metropolitan Alliance of Police (MAP). Hermesdorf was the subject of a complaint filed by a citizen alleging that Hermesdorf blocked, pushed…

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In early 2014, Senior Investigator Donald Oliver of the Office of Special Investigation of the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) began investigating an incident involving the throwing of food by at least one corrections officer at a civilian employee. On January 28, 2014, Oliver questioned the security staff who had been present in the mess hall at the time of the incident, as well as…

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The City of New Haven, Connecticut and Local 825 of the International Association of Fire Fighters are parties to a collective bargaining agreement. In September 2010, Patrick Egan, the president of Local 825, was promoted to Assistant Chief of Administration, a position outside the bargaining unit. Egan was succeeded as president by Lieutenant James Kottage. Kottage considered Egan to be a harsh administrator and relations between the Local and…

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The right to union representation in an investigatory interview generally derives from the United States Supreme Court’s decision in NLRB v. Weingarten, 420 U.S. 251 (1975), the seminal case regarding private-sector employee representation rights. In Weingarten, the Court found that Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) granted private-sector employees the right to have a union representative present at an investigatory interview when the employee reasonably believed…

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In 1975, the United States Supreme Court held in National Labor Relations Board v. J. Weingarten, Inc., 420 U.S. 251, that under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), a union employee enjoys the right to have a union representative join him or her during an investigatory interview the employee reasonably believes may result in discipline. This right of representation, now known as an employee’s Weingarten right, originally applied only…

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