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Public Employee Press
Labor fights to restore members Weingarten rights By
EDDIE M. DEMMINGS DC 37 General Counsel Weingarten
rights refer to the right of union members to have union representation when they
are called to an investigatory interview that could reasonably be expected to
lead to disciplinary action. These rights have been made available to both public
and private sector employees in New York State. However, on Feb. 20,
a 4-2 majority of the New York State Court of Appeals decided that public sector
employees in the state do not have the Weingarten rights that have been enjoyed
by private sector employees since 1975. They based their ruling on the fact that
the Taylor Law, which governs collective bargaining and union representation issues
for most public sector employees, contains different statutory language than the
National Labor Relations Act, which covers the private sector. The two
Democratic-appointed justices on the states highest court, including the
chief justice, wrote a strong dissent from the Republican majority. Where
are we now? The majority of DC 37 members work in the public sector
and still have the right to union representation for investigatory interviews
under the citywide contract. But the benefits of that contract are limited to
permanent employees. Also, under Section 75(2) of the state Civil Service
Law, permanent competitive employees and non-competitives with more than five
years of service have the equivalent of Weingarten rights. In other words, while
the Court of Appeals struck down the right of all public sector employees to union
representation in investigations, certain categories of employees still maintain
those rights. Also not affected is the right of our members to a lawyer
if they are called to an investigation by the New York City Dept. of Investigations.
DC 37 also has members who work at libraries and cultural institutions, which
are in the private sector. We believe these workers still have Weingarten
rights because they are not covered by the Taylor Law. Where
do we go from here? The New York State AFL-CIO has already introduced
legislation in the state Legislature to restore Weingarten rights to all public
sector employees. We are reasonably optimistic that the legislation may pass in
the foreseeable future. | |