Section 6 Waivers of Statutory Rights Under Collective Bargaining Agreements

• Library: Employment Discrimination 2008

In Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S. 36 (1974), the Supreme Court held that an employee was not required to arbitrate a statutory claim of discrimination under a grievance and arbitration clause contained in a collective bargaining agreement. In Alexander, an arbitrator had denied the employee’s discrimination claim. One issue before the Court was whether the arbitration award barred further litigation. In unanimously holding that further litigation was not prohibited, the Court reasoned that:

• the area of special competence of a labor arbitrator related
  to “the law of the shop, not the law of the land,” Alexander, 415 U.S. at 57

• the arbitral fact-finding process was not the equivalent of judicial fact-finding

• arbitrators are not required to give reasoned awards; and

• the arbitral forum’s informality made it less appropriate for federal statutory discrimination claims

The last sentence of the opinion, however, does permit evidence of an arbitrator’s award to be introduced at trial. “The arbitral decision may be admitted as evidence and accorded such weight as the court deems appropriate.” Id. at 60.

Seventeen years after Alexander, 415 U.S. 36, the Supreme Court decided Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp., 500 U.S. 20 (1991). In Gilmer, which is discussed at greater length in §21.7 below,
the...