President Carl Haynes reminded all Local 237 members last month that they are entitled to have a union representative with them at any meeting with their employers which could possibly lead to some form of disciplinary action.

The Local president repeated his oft-stated warning, noting that a recent decision by the city’s Office of Collective Bargaining (OCB) affirmed the right of a city worker to have union representation present during any interview which the employee “reasonably believes may result in disciplinary action.” He noted that this includes a shop steward or a business agent.

The Board of Collective Bargaining held that an employee’s request for union representation at such a hearing “is a protected activity under the New York City Collective Bargaining Law.”

Joel Sosinsky, counsel to the president, said the OCB ruling effectively gives city employees the same protection as that afforded private sector workers. That Federal Court decision, commonly known as the “Weingarten law,” holds that “requiring a lone employee to attend an investigatory interview which he reasonably believes may result in the imposition of discipline perpetuates the inequality the Act was designed to eliminate and bars recourse to the safeguards the Act provided ‘to redress the perceived imbalance of economic power between labor and management.’”

Attorney Deborah Singer, the citywide grievance coordinator for Local 237, said although the federal law normally does not apply to public employees covered by the state’s Taylor Law, the union has long been advising members to contact their union representatives before attending any meeting that may lead to discipline. Now, as a result of the OCB decision, Local 237 members have a legal right to do so.