Union FMLA Responsibility

[kennyund67]

I was terminated and believe my FMLA rights were violated.

I filed a grievance with my union and they are saying that the DOL has to investigate it first before they will proceed.

I had a termination hearing over a seperate issues and they wouldn't let me bring up FMLA issues in that hearing and the union colluded with the company and upheld my termination.

Does the union have to process my grievance?

Do I have somewhere to file a complaint with if the union won't hear my grievance.

I can't afford a lawyer and the DOL I am told won't go to court unless the grievance is over a couple hundered thousand dollars. I am in the process of contacting the DOL to set up a meeting but they are not returning calls.

The FMLA does not require the Union to wait until the DOL completes its investigation before it takes action on your grievance. The Union might want to do so to save some time and money because DOL investigations are free. Make sure that the Union pays attention to the grievance processing deadlines while they wait for the DOL to investigate. The Union may need to get an extention from Management to ensure that your grievance remains timely.

It is unclear why the Union would not let you raise FMLA issues in a termination hearing. You would need to provide more facts.

The Union is not legally mandated to process a grievance. Union's do, however, have the legal responsiblity to provide fair representation to bargaining unit members. To avoid unfair representation lawsuits, Unions may take a grievance forward that they do not believe has much merit. They are not, again, legally required to do so if the do not believe the matter has merit.

Go to the Web and look up the National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA). Look for an attorney on their site in your area. Make some calls. If you have a decent case many attorneys will take it on contingency - zero or very little down for a % of the settlement or jury victory.