EMPLOYEE'S RIGHT TO UNION REPRESENTATION The right of employees to have union representation at investigatory
interviews was announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1975 case (NLRB vs. Weingarten, Inc. 420 U.S. 251, 88 LRRM 2689). These rights have become known as the Weingarten rights. Employees have Weingarten rights only during investigatory interviews.
An investigatory interview occurs when a supervisor questions an employee to obtain information which could be used as a basis
for discipline or asks an employee to defend his or her conduct. If an employee has a reasonable belief that discipline or other adverse
consequences may result from what he or she says, the employee has the right to request union representation. Management is
not required to inform the employee of his/her Weingarten rights; it is the employees responsibility to know and
request. When
the employee makes the request for a union representative to be present management has three options: (I) it can stop
questioning until the representative arrives. (2) it can call off the interview or, (3) it can tell the employee
that it will call off the interview unless the employee voluntarily gives up his/her rights to a union representative (an
option the emplovee should always refuse.) Employers will often assert that the only role of a union representative in an investigatory interview
is to observe the discussion. The Supreme Court, however, clearly acknowledges a representative's right to assist and counsel
workers during the interview. The Supreme Court has also ruled that during an investigatory interview management must inform the
union representative of the subject of the interrogation. The representative must also be allowed to speak privately with
the employee before the interview. During the questioning, the representative can interrupt to clarify a question or to object
to confusing or intimidating tactics. While the interview is in progress the representative can not tell the employee what to say but
he may advise them on how to answer a question. At the end of the interview the union representative can add information to
support the employee's case. On June 15, 2004, The National Labor Relations Board ruled by a 3-2 vote that employees
who work in a nonunionized workplace are not entitled under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act to have a coworker
accompany them to an interview with their employer, even if the affected employee reasonably believes that the interview might
result in discipline. This decision effectively reversed the July 2000 decision of the Clinton Board that extended Weingarten Rights
to nonunion employees. |