ERISA Plan Not Subject To Labor Arbitration

Steelworkers v. Rohm, ___F.3d___(3rd Cir. April 14, 2008) is an important decision. The court holds that a dispute over an ERISA disablity plan is generally not subject to labor arbitration. As the court stated:

While we recognize the strong
policy considerations favoring arbitration of labor disputes,
there is no right to arbitration of ERISA benefits under a CBA
unless the ERISA benefits sought are either: (i) derived directly
from an ERISA plan established and maintained by or
incorporated into a CBA whose grievance procedure contains an
arbitration clause, or (ii) created by a separate ERISA plan and
that plan and/or the CBA provide that adverse benefit
determinations by a plan administrator are subject to the CBA’s
grievance procedure that includes arbitration. Because we hold
that the benefits sought in this case are neither created by or
incorporated into the CBA nor made subject to the CBA’s
grievance procedure, we reverse the District Court’s order
granting summary judgment to the union and those workers
seeking disability benefits and denying summary judgment to
the employer.

This was a lengthy decision that we are likely to hear more about in the future.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein