Fifth Circuit: the Public Policy Exception

The latest Fifth Circuit‘s decision related to arbitration is Cont’l Airlines, Inc. v. Air Line Pilots Ass’n, _F.3d_ (5th Cir. 2009) (Cause No. 07-20835). This case falls within the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which provides that minor disputes must be resolved through compulsory and binding arbitration before the System Board of Adjustment (SBA). Here, a pilot is appealing an order of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas reversing a reinstatement order of the SBA.

The court noted that it had refused to enforce at least two arbitration awards reinstating a safety-sensitive employee discharged for drug or alcohol abuse. However, the subsequent U.S. Supreme Court case Eastern Associated Coal Corp. v. Mine Workers, 531 U.S. 57 (2000) had narrowed the public policy exception. There, the Fourth Circuit had held than an arbitration award that reinstated a DOT safety-sensitive employee who had failed a drug test, violated public policy. But the U.S. Supreme Court reversed it.

The court concluded that, after Eastern, their “ability to set aside decisions like that of the SBA in this case is severely circumscribed.”