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OFFICE OF THE UMPIRE B-271 FEBRUARY 20, 1943
Layoff of Temporary Employees
GRIEVANCE: Electro-Motive -- Case B-18 "I have worked for 5 months. I was laid off Friday on ground of curtailing production. Many men with as little as 1 or 2 months service are still working while I have been laid off. I feel that I have been unjustly discriminated against and demand that I be rehired at least until layoffs affect men with 5 months service or more."
Umpire's Decision:
In the Matter of: United Automobile Workers of America -- C.I.O. -- Local 719 and General Motors Corporation -- Electro-Motive Division -- Case B-18
On October 17, 1942, Employee A. presented a grievance which read: "I have worked for 5 months. I was laid off Friday on ground of curtailing production. Many men with as little as 1 or 2 months service are still working while I have been laid off. I feel that I have been unjustly discriminated against and demand that I be rehired at least until layoffs affect men with 5 months service or more." A hearing on this matter was held in Chicago on January 21, 1943.
Nature of Case and Claims of Parties Due to a curtailment of work in the Locomotive Division at this plant in October, 1942, transfers of seniority employees resulted in the layoff of a number of temporary employees. Employee A., one of these temporary employees, had been working approximately five months at the time of his layoff. When A. was laid off, a number of employees doing work he felt capable of performing, and who had worked for periods much shorter than he, were still employed. The Union contends in his case, therefore, that he should not have been laid off until all other men with less service at this plant had been laid off. The Union's major contention here is that, within the group of temporary employees, "the principles of seniority should equally obtain". It is the Union's feeling that a temporary employee should continue to work, at jobs he is capable of performing, until all persons with a shorter service record have been laid off. In accordance with Paragraph 56 of the June 3, 1941 Agreement, the Union reasons that Employee A. should not have been laid off, and requests that he be granted compensation for all time lost by reason of his layoff. Management lays particular emphasis on the fact that no charge accompanied by written evidence has been made in support of the original allegation that there was discrimination against the employee for any kind of activity. In the absence of such evidence, Management reasons that Paragraph 56 of the June 3, 1941 Agreement does not require that the temporary employees be laid off according to length of service, and does not extend to such temporary employees the rights given by the Agreement to employees possessing seniority. For this reason, then, Management maintains there was no obligation to retain Employee A. in a job until all other employees with less than five months' service had been laid off.
Observations and Decision of the Umpire The only means by which Employee A. could have supported his claim of improper layoff in this instance is to have presented clear and unmistakable evidence that there was personal prejudice, or discrimination for Union activity, in connection with his layoff. There has been no such material presented in written form in this case, nor has any such evidence been referred to in the final step of the grievance procedure. For this reason, the part of A.'s claim that originally alluded to discrimination has no basis in fact. The remainder of the Union's claim in this case is that Employee A. should have had seniority rights in his layoff, and that all other employees with less than five months' service should have been laid off before him. There is simply nothing in the Agreement which can be cited as extending seniority to employees who do not possess seniority until they have been employed for a period of six months. To do so would be to extend to temporary employees the seniority provisions of the National Agreement, at least insofar as layoffs are concerned. Since no provision of the June 3, 1941 Agreement gives any seniority rights to temporary employees, there was no obligation on the part of Management to retain A. until all other temporary employees with less than five months' service had been laid off. Employee A.'s entire claim is denied.
Decision
Signed G. ALLAN DASH, JR. Umpire February 20, 1943. |