This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the nature, causes, dimensions, and effects of absenteeism and gives professionals specific guidelines for determining how it affects their particular organization. Economic, psychological, and sociological dimensions are discussed in clear, nontechnical terms. Readers will learn how to analyze absenteeism and measure its direct and indirect costs; how to collect, test, and evaluate data; how to formulate a workable personnel policy; and how to implement effective absenteeism control procedures. The analyses and prescriptions offered are applicable to union and nonunion, blue collar and white collar occupations in virtually any type of industry, agency, or institution. Incorporating the recommendations of arbitrators who have evaluated a wide variety of problems in this area, the authors provide concrete examples of workable and unworkable approaches and bring a wealth of practical expertise to bear on a probelm that continues to pose a major obstacle to greater efficiency and productivity.

Designed specifically for labor management advocates and their clients in the public sector, this book is a comprehensive yet practical guide to the arbitration of grievances in public employment. The authors, both experienced arbitrators themselves, offer step-by-step advice on the preparation and presentation of arbitration cases and provide a detailed description of effective grievance resolution through the effective use of the grievance procedure. Written in a style accessible to those without substantial academic training in labor relations law, the volume's purpose is to equip the practitioner to represent his or her respective constituents effectively in the private system of industrial jurisprudence. Although it focuses particularly on grievance administration and arbitration in state and local government, the concepts and techniques presented are equally appropriate for those working in the federal or private sectors.

Following an introduction, the authors review various state bargaining statutes governing the arbitration of grievance disputes and look at the grievance process as a prelude to arbitration. They go on to examine the institution of arbitration, focusing primarily upon the administrative agencies, the arbitrators, and the legal environment within which labor relations advocates must work. Subsequent chapters treat procedural and evidential issues common to arbitration, the arbitration of discharge and disciplinary matters, contract interpretation issues, and the decision making of neutrals and what can or cannot reasonably be expected of arbitrators. In their conclusion, the authors make the case for rights arbitration as the preferred method of dispute resolution. Five appendices contain information critical for the practitioner not normally available in a single source: the Code of Professional Responsibility for Arbitrators of Labor-Management Disputes; the Rules of the American Arbitration Association and the Procedures of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service; and sample arbitration awards issued in real-life cases.

Labor law in state and local government is often characterized as a patchwork of inconsistent and contradictory statutes. The purpose of this book is to present the labor law in state government in a concise and understandable manner. To date, there has been no systematic treatise on the subject that is generally applicable. The authors have collected and analyzed the laws of each state that have enacted collective bargaining statutes. Comparisons are drawn with the National Labor Relations Act and the evidence suggests that there is a significant area of consistency, suggesting that many jurisdictions have modelled their statutes after the federal law; making only those modifications necessary to local conditions. Rather than focus on minute details of specific statutes, the authors have presented a general analysis of the major aspects of the state collective bargaining laws.

The book begins with an introduction and overview of the states' labor laws. An analysis of why states must act if collective bargaining rights for public employees are to be protected is presented together with an analysis of the political and economic reasons for inconsistent treatment of public sector employees collective bargaining rights. The discussion then turns to the structure and functions of administrative law agencies, the rights of employers and employees, the scope of bargaining, bargaining in good faith, impasse resolution and its impact, and contract enforcement and administration.