The dispute involved a long-term health care provider and an assisted living services provider that was based in the same building. The union represented certain housekeeping employees at the location. The long-term health care provider was a signatory to the relevant collective bargaining agreements, and “for years” it applied the terms of the agreements to assisted living employees, including remitting union dues and health fund payments on their behalf. Another company began managing the housekeeping department at the property in 2013. The company signed an assumption agreement with respect to the operative collective bargaining agreement, under which the assisted living provider was not a signatory. The company ultimately stopped applying the 2008 collective bargaining agreement to the assisted living employees, and the union filed a grievance. Arbitration ensued, resulting in the issuance of the arbitration award at issue here.

On appeal, the defendants argued that the district court erred in confirming the arbitration award because the arbitrator exceeded his authority under the 2008 collective bargaining agreement, and, in doing so, the arbitrator violated public policy. The Second Circuit, however, affirmed the district court’s confirmation of the award based on the “strong presumption in favor of enforcing arbitration awards.” The Second Circuit relied on the fact that the collective bargaining agreement broadly authorized the arbitrator to resolve grievances, defined as “a dispute with regard to the application, interpretation or performance of an express term or condition” of the 2008 collective bargaining agreement. The court found that the arbitrator did resolve grievances within the meaning of the collective bargaining agreement here, as the arbitrator determined: (1) prior to 2013, the long-term health care and assisted living providers were treated as a single employer; (2) the assisted living provider was included in the “signatory employers list” of a prior collective bargaining agreement; (3) the long-term health care provider continued to provide those benefits under the 2008 collective bargaining agreement; and (4) the long-term health care provider and the management company violated the collective bargaining agreement by unilaterally removing assisted living employees from the bargaining unit.

The arbitrator also concluded that the long-term health care provider and assisted living provider’s single-employer status continued after the sale because the providers had interrelated operations, common management, centralized control of labor relations, and common ownership. The arbitrator’s determination of who was bound by the collective bargaining agreement by virtue of the parties’ conduct was within the scope of his authority and “an arguable construction of the agreement.” The Second Circuit rejected the defendants’ arguments that the award violated public policy by making the union the bargaining representative for assisted living employees and that the award did not draw its essence from the collective bargaining agreement.

1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers E. v. Alaris Health at Hamilton Park, No. 18‐2898 (2d Cir. Sept. 17, 2019).