June 11, 2007

Gerald Skoning's annual roundup of ten of the year's weirdest employment cases is online at the National Law Journal. One that was new to us:

The Eastern District of New York has ruled that an arbitration panel did not err in ordering the reinstatement of a warehouse employee, with a history of violent behavior and felony indictments, to his job, which involved handling highly explosive chemicals. According to the court, Anthony Bennett was repeatedly disciplined for misconduct at work. His co-workers were afraid of him, citing erratic behavior, including beating a woman and on another occasion bringing a 9-millimeter gun to work. Amazingly, the court ruled that enforcement of the arbitration award did not violate public policy.

A more detailed account of the case appears on page 4 of this August 2006 law-firm newsletter (PDF). It indicates that the full fact pattern is if anything even more lurid than would appear from Skoning's brief summary. (And, yes, we realize that judicial deference to erroneous arbitration awards is by and large a sound policy. But still.)