Section 12 Perfunctory Conduct

• Library: Emp-Emp Law 2000

In another line of cases, the Eighth Circuit has seemed to hold that “perfunctory” conduct will suffice to make out a breach of the duty of fair representation. In Ethier v. United States Postal Service, 590 F.2d 733 (8^th Cir. 1979), the plaintiff alleged that his union had breached its duty of fair representation in perfunctorily processing his grievance after an arbitrator had dismissed his grievance because the contractual requirements as to timeliness had not been adhered to. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the judgment in favor of the union and held that the record did not support Ethier’s contention that the union had acted in a perfunctory fashion. The court cited the Webster’s New World Dictionary’s definition of perfunctory as “without...