-WEINGARTEN RIGHTS-

The U.S. Supreme Court's 1975 decision in the Weingarten case held that if the employer requires an employee to submit to an investigatory interview and denies the employee's request for union representation, then the employer is in violation of the National Labor Relations Act:

*Union members have the right to a union representative at an investigatory hearing if they reasonably believe that the investigation could lead to disciplinary action.

*The member must request a representative; the employer has no obligation to inform the employee of that right.

*Management does not have to call the representative. Instead, the employer can stop the meeting or just issue the discipline.

*Once a union representative is called, he/she has the right: (1) to know the subject of the investigatory hearing; (2) to confer with the member prior to the hearing; (3) to speak and participate in the hearing. However, the representative cannot argue the case since this is not a grievance hearing.

*The employee does not have the right to select the representative of his or her choice. For example, the department steward will be called, if available. The nearest available representative will be called if the department steward is unavailable.

*If the employer is responsible for the representative not being available, then the supervisor must end the meeting until the representative is available.

*If the union is responsible for the representative not being available, then another representative or employee can be called in, unless the supervisor chooses to postpone the meeting.

*The member can ask for a witness if no steward is available.