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NFFE 1450
News
Arbitrator Orders HUD to Abate Dangerous LA Men’s Bathroom Doors!12/10/2009
After 13 years of frustration due to HUD management’s stalling and excusing-making about changing the dangerous outward swing of the men’s bathroom doors at the HUD Los Angeles Field Office, which swing more than halfway into the corridors, on November 23, 2009, NFFE-IAM Local 1450 received Arbitrator Saundria Bordone’s decision regarding whether or not the men’s bathroom doors constitute a safety hazard according to Article 27 of our Labor Management Agreement. Arbitrator Bordone found that the men’s bathroom doors indeed constitute a safety hazard and ordered HUD to abate them!
The Arbitrator agreed with the Union’s argument that because HUD’s own Administrative Services Handbook 2200.01, Chapter 12: Safety and Health Program Management, Section 5, paragraph 4.A.1.a identifies doors that swing into corridors as safety hazards and Article 27, Section 27.01 of the Labor Management Agreement requires HUD to comply with Chapter 12 of HUD Handbook 2200.01, the outward swing of the men’s bathroom doors, therefore, met the definition of a safety hazard in the Labor Management Agreement. Moreover, Article 27, Section 27.05 of the Labor Management Agreement requires management to abate safety hazards in the workplace. As the Union pointed out at the arbitration hearing and in its closing brief, Arbitrator Bordone noted that HUD Administrative Services Handbook 2200.01, Chapter 12: Safety and Health Program Management, Section 5, paragraph 4.A.1.a recommends that doors that swing outward into corridors be re-hung to swing inward as the preferred method of correction. The Arbitrator ordered HUD to abate the dangerous LA men’s bathroom doors in accordance with Article 27, Section 27.05 of the Labor Management and HUD Administrative Services Handbook 2200.01, Chapter 12: Safety and Health Program Management, Section 5, paragraph 4.A.1.a.
Instead of settling this arbitration case by agreeing to remedy the safety hazard posed by the outward swing of the men’s bathroom doors in the best interest of HUD employees and public visitors to the office, HUD management chose to spend travel and per diem for two attorneys, a Human Resources specialist technical advisor, two “expert” witnesses from the General Services Administration, $2,500 for the court reporter and transcript, and $1,800 in the arbitrator’s fees. These costs totaled probably more than the actual cost of fixing the doors! Now HUD still has to pay to abate the doors. The Union has been advocating increased labor-management partnership and collaboration to settle grievances and arbitration cases before they get to a hearing and arbitration decision. However, unfortunately, HUD management has been relying on the advice of the Office of General Counsel to be adversarial and go to arbitration hearings without conducting cost-benefit analysis of the use of American taxpayer dollars. NFFE-IAM Local 1450 hopes that in the near future we can get back on to a path of labor-management collaboration and partnership in the best interests of the Agency’s mission, HUD employees and the American taxpayer.
The Union again thanks our courageous bargaining-unit employees who testified at the arbitration hearing and who stood up for their contractual bargaining-unit rights to work in a safe environment.
NFFE-IAM Local 1450 President Ricardo Miranda, who was the Union’s representative at the arbitration hearing, also thanks Los Angeles Principal Office Representative Rick Lombardi and OGC attorney and Steward Anu Nadkarni for their research, preparation and assistance as technical advisors for the hearing, and NFFE National Business Representative Jan Thompson and NFFE-IAM Local 1450 Vice President Liz McDargh for their contract analysis and arbitration strategy and argumentation advice. NFFE-IAM Local 1450 is blessed to have a talented leadership team fighting for our Union members’ workplace rights.
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Last modified: 3/12/2010
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