Weingarten Rights
EMPLOYEE'S RIGHT TO UNION REPRESENTATION
The rights of employees to have present
a union representative during investigatory interviews
were 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 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 employee's responsibility to know and request.
When the employee makes the request for a union representative
to be present management has three options:
(1) 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 employee should always
refuse.)
Some Contracts requires such refusal of a Shop Steward
to be in writing and copied to the Union.
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.
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