Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

Background and Hypothesis

In the aftermath of the wave of public employee strikes which hit a number of key metropolitan areas rather severely in 1968, several states decided to experiment with compulsory arbitration statutes for the protective services. Robert Howlett has recently noted that one of the most critical differences among these varying states is in their treatment of prescribed standards or criteria to guide arbitrators in making their awards. The conventional wisdom in this field is that such standards facilitate the arbitration process by setting up legislated limitations on the discretion of the neutral. Professor Hines has stated that "arbitration of the basic labor agreement as an alternative to collective bargaining is quite simple to suggest but extremely difficult to implement to the satisfaction of the parties" because of "the absence of substantive criteria to guide the arbitrators in arriving at a decisions."2