First few Article Sentences
When employers with a unionized workforce discipline an employee covered by a just cause provision in a collective bargaining agreement, the due process afforded to the employee is often almost as important as proving the underlying misconduct. A key aspect of due process is the right of unionized employees in both the private and public sector to have a union representative present during an investigatory interview.
Weingarten rights stem from the humble facts of a 1975 Supreme Court case where these rights were first defined. J. Weingarten, Inc. employee Leura Collins selected four pieces of chicken from her employer’s lunch counter. The to-go box normally used for the four-piece meal was out of stock, so she used a larger box, and paid the one-dollar price for the four pieces. One of Collins’s coworkers saw her pay the dollar while holding a large box and suspected that Collins had underpaid, so she reported what she saw to management. The company conducted an investigatory interview into the alleged chicken theft. Collins requested the presence of her union representative several times during the interview, but the employer denied her request. Her case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that an employee has a right to have a union representative present during an investigatory interview or other interview the employee reasonably believes could lead to discipline.