Section 22 Failure to Exhaust Contractual Remedies

• Library: Emp-Emp Law 2000

The familiar rule that a plaintiff must exhaust available remedies before proceeding to court has been applied in the context of fair representation litigation. Where the employee’s claim is based in part on a breach of a collective bargaining agreement, there will almost always be a duty to exhaust a contractual remedy because collective bargaining agreements almost universally provide some grievance resolution mechanism in the contract. In Republic Steel Corp. v. Maddox, 379 U.S. 650, 653 (1965), the Supreme Court held that suit could not be...