A recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision made to provide labor organizations an additional tool in their efforts to enforce final and binding arbitration awards. As explained in our recent article, in addition to enforcing such awards under State contract law, labor organizations in concert with the affected employee, may be able to argue that refusal to abide by "final and binding" arbitration awards also constitute a violation of constitutional due process rights.

On January 6, 2013, Officer Tam Guthrie of the Mountlake Terrace Police Department was ordered reinstated to his position as an Officer for the City of Mountlake Terrace. Arbitrator Mark Brennan also awarded that the City of Mountlake Terrace pay full back pay and benefits to Tam Guthrie from the date of termination based on his findings that the City of Mountlake Terrace did not have just cause to terminate the longtime employee.

In City of Bellevue, Decision 11435 (PECB, 2012) the union alleged that the employer had committed two unfair labor practices in the collective bargaining process. First, the employer proposed maintaining a “management rights” provision that listed enumerated rights in the existing collective bargaining agreement. When the union proposed deleting the provision, over the union’s objection, the employer insisted on including the provision and on certifying the enumerated items to interest arbitration. Second, the employer bargained to impasse and sought interest arbitration of an attorneys’ fees provision in existing grievance procedure language.