Private Labor Arbitration Award, November 2012

On November 5, 2012, Partner Matt Wakefield received a favorable arbitration award on behalf of an upscale hotel in Detroit, Michigan. The hotel discharged an engineer for failing to properly perform his job following a series of progressive disciplinary actions. The union representing the engineer grieved the discharge, asserting that it was without just cause. In preparing for the arbitration, the hotel discovered numerous overlaps between the employee’s time records at the hotel and those of his second job. The employer argued that this “after-acquired” evidence was an independent basis for upholding the employee’s discharge from the hotel. The arbitrator agreed with the employer and denied the grievance. While he found that the employer had not established just cause to discharge the employee for failing to properly perform his job, the after-acquired evidence of overlapping time entries, including the employee working at his second job while on sick leave from the hotel, precluded the employee from being reinstated.