Ill. State Toll Highway Auth. v. Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters, 2–14–1060.

43 N.E.3d 1206

The ILLINOIS STATE TOLL HIGHWAY AUTHORITY, Plaintiff–Appellee

v.INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, LOCAL 700, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 2–14–1060.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District.

Nov. 17, 2015.

Nicole L. Chaney, of Teamsters Local 700, Park Ridge, for appellant.

Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Chicago (Carolyn E. Shapiro, Solicitor General, and Christina T. Hansen, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel), for appellee.

OPINION

Justice BURKE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

¶ 1 Defendant, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 700 (Union), appeals a judgment vacating an arbitrator's award in its favor and against plaintiff, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (Tollway). We reverse, and we reinstate the award.

¶ 2 The Union filed a grievance against the Tollway. According to the arbitrator's written decision, the Tollway “requir[es] that an employee, who is absent due to illness for two or fewer days, present medical documentation, or other proof acceptable to the Tollway, certifying the employee's ability to return to work, and explaining the reasons for the absence.” The Union contended that this policy violates the parties' Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).¹

¶ 3 As pertinent here, the CBA reads:

“ARTICLE I

Purpose

1.1 It is the intent and purpose of the parties to set forth in this Agreement the terms of employment concerning rates of pay, hours of employment, and other working conditions to be observed by them and the employees covered hereby.

* * *

ARTICLE III

Management Rights

3.1 The management of the operations of the Employer, the determination of its policies, budget and operations, the manner of exercise of its statutory functions, and the direction of its working forces, including, but not limited to, the right to hire, promote, demote, transfer, classify and reclassify, assign and direct employees; to discipline, suspend, and discharge for cause; to relieve employees from duty because of lack of work or other legitimate reasons; to make and enforce reasonable rules of conduct and regulation; to implement a substance abuse program, to determine the departments, divisions and sections and work to be performed therein; to determine quality; to determine the number of hours of work and shifts per work week; to establish and change work schedules and assignments; to introduce new methods of operation; to eliminate, relocate, transfer, or subcontract work and to maintain efficiency is vested exclusively in the Employer provided, however, that no such management right shall be exercised in a manner contrary to or inconsistent with the provisions of this Agreement. The exercise of these rights shall be subject to the grievance procedure set forth in Article XII.

* * *

ARTICLE XI

Miscellaneous Rights and Benefits

* * * 11.2(A) SICK LEAVE. A full-time employee shall accumulate sick leave at the rate of one (1) day for each month of full-time service. Except as hereinafter provided, sick leave days shall be used only for reason of bona fide illness, accident or injury of the employee. Unused sick leave may be carried forward without limitation. Sick leave benefits as provided above shall be payable with the first (1st) day of absence. If an employee is absent due to illness for more than two (2) days, he/she must present medical documentation or other proof acceptable to the Employer, certifying his/her ability to return to work and explaining the reasons for the absence.

* * *

ARTICLE XII

Grievance and Arbitration Procedure

12.1 GRIEVANCE STEPS. In order to provide an orderly method of handling and disposing of all disputes, misunderstandings, differences, or grievances arising between the Employer and the Union or the employees covered by this Agreement as to the meaning, interpretation, and application of the provisions of this Agreement, such differences shall be settled in the following manner, except as herein otherwise provided. In the event the Employer re-organizes or changes otherwise its grievance representatives listed below, it agrees to timely notify the Union of said changes and such notice shall serve solely as a procedural modification of this Article.

STEP 1: An aggrieved employee and steward, if requested by the employee, shall first orally take up the grievance with the employee's immediate Section Manager and District Manager. The District Manager and Section Manager shall orally reply to the grievance within three (3) work days.

STEP 2: If the grievance is not satisfactorily adjusted in Step 1 or an answer is not given within the time specified, the grievance shall be reduced to writing on a standard grievance form, signed by the employee involved and the steward, dated and presented in duplicate:

(A) In the case of an Engineering Department employee, to the General Manager of Maintenance and Traffic.

(B) In the case of an Operational Services employee, to the Chief of Operational Services.

The written grievance shall contain a brief statement of the nature of the grievance, shall identify the section or sections of the Agreement allegedly violated and shall state the relief sought. Within seven (7) calendar days of receipt of the written grievance, the representative of the Employer named above shall make arrangements with the designated representative of the Union for a meeting to discuss the grievance. In addition to the designated representative of the Union and the representative of the Employer named above, those attending the meeting shall include, if requested by either party, the Supervisor of the grievant, the grievant, the Union Steward and employee witnesses. Within seven (7) calendar days after the meeting, the representative of the Employer named above shall note his disposition of the grievance thereon, sign, date and return one (1) copy of the grievance to the designated representative of the Union.

STEP 3: If, in the case of Engineering Department employees, the matter is not satisfactorily adjusted in Step 2 within the time specified, the designated representative of the Union shall within seven (7) calendar days request a meeting with the Chief Engineer. Within seven (7) calendar days after such meeting, the Chief Engineer shall note his disposition on the grievance form, sign, date and return one (1) copy thereof to the designated representative of the Union.

If, in the case of the Operational Services employees, the matter is not satisfactorily adjusted in Step 2 within the time specified, the designated representative of the Union shall within seven (7) calendar days request a meeting with the Chief of Operational Services. Within seven (7) calendar days of such meeting, the Chief of Operational Services shall note his disposition on the grievance form, sign, date and return one (1) copy thereof to the designated representative of the Union.

STEP 4: If the grievance is not satisfactorily adjusted in Step 3 or an answer is not given within the time specified, the Union may at its election submit the grievance within thirty (30) calendar days from the date of the Employer's written denial of the grievance or the date an answer was due to arbitration in accordance with the following procedure.

The Union and the Employer shall jointly request the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service for a list of names of seven (7) arbitrators, all of whom are members of the National Academy of Arbitrators. From the list, the Union shall strike three (3) names, then the Employer shall strike three (3) names, and the person whose name remains shall be the arbitrator.

The arbitrator will be jointly contacted and asked to hold a hearing at which both parties may present evidence. The Arbitrator [sic ] shall decide only the grievance submitted by applying only the express language of this Agreement, and shall have no authority to add to, subtract from, modify, or amend this agreement [sic ].

The arbitrator's duly rendered decision shall be final and binding on the Employer, the Union, and the employee or employees involved. * * *

12.2 TIME LIMITS. Grievances must be presented in Step 1 [sic ] within ten (10) working days from the occurrence of the incident or the time the employee should have obtained direct knowledge of the condition which gave rise to the grievance. Appeals from one step to the next must be taken within five (5) working days from [the] date of answer or time specified for answer.”

¶ 4 On December 13, 2013, at an arbitration hearing, both parties presented witnesses and introduced evidence. (The record contains no report of this hearing.) On January 8, 2014, the arbitrator issued his written ruling.

¶ 5 The arbitrator noted that the Tollway requires any employee who is absent due to illness for two days or fewer to present medical documentation, or other acceptable proof, certifying the employee's ability to return to work and explaining the absence. The Union contended that this policy violates the CBA. The issues were (1) whether the Union's grievance was arbitrable; and (2) if so, whether it was meritorious.

¶ 6 The arbitrator then recited the following undisputed facts. The Tollway has a legitimate interest in deterring the use of sick days for improper purposes. It has given its supervisors, known as “garage managers,” the authority to require certain employees to provide a doctor's excuse or other proof of illness before they are permitted to return to work. However, a garage manager has the discretion to decide when to require documentation. The Tollway admitted that it had required some employees who took sick leaves of two days or fewer to present documentation that they were able to return to work and explaining their absences. At least one such employee was told by his foreman that, if he did not provide the documentation, the foreman would “write him up” for insubordination. The Union filed a grievance contending that “[the] medical-documentation requirement as applied by [the Tollway]” violated article...