Originally from: AAA Handbook on Labor Arbitration - 2nd Edition

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CHAPTER 20

DISCLOSURE PROBLEMS OF THE ACADEMIC LABOR ARBITRATOR

I. Introduction
Arbitrators in labor-management disputes have always been concerned with ethical and disclosure problems. Functioning as private judges,1 they decide important employment controversies. Issues of discipline and discharge dominate the arbitral caseload. In reversing a company’s decision in a discharge case, the arbitrator may reinstate the employee and even order back pay. Similarly in a discipline case, the arbitrator may sustain the company’s penalty or modify or even rescind it. In deciding contractual interpretation cases, the arbitrator makes awards that may require substantial employer payments or deny benefits to some or all workers in a bargaining unit. To promote proper behavior, the labor arbitrators’ professional organization, the National Academy of Arbitrators, along with the two major appointing agencies, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the American Arbitration Association, have promulgated the Code of Professional Responsibility for Arbitrators of Labor-Management Disputes. Individuals who have complaints against arbitrators are invited to report them.2