CONSOLIDATED RAIL CORPORATION v. RAILWAY LABOR EXECUTIVES’ ASSOCIATION ET AL.
No. 88-1
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 28, 1989-Decided June 19, 1989
491 U.S. 299
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
John O‘B. Clarke, Jr., argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were Lawrence M. Mann, William G. Mahoney, Laurence Gold, and Cornelius C. O‘Brien, Jr.*
JUSTICE BLACKMUN delivered the opinion of the Court.
In this case, we must examine the concepts of “major” and “minor” disputes in the area of railway labor relations, articulate a standard for differentiating between the two, and apply that standard to a drug-testing dispute.
I
Since its formation in 1976, petitioner Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), has required its employees to undergo physical examinations periodically and upon return from leave. These examinations include the testing of urine for blood sugar and albumin and, in some circumstances, for drugs. On February 20, 1987, Conrail announced unilaterally that urinalysis drug screening would be included henceforth as part of all periodic and return-from-leave physical examinations. Respondent Railway Labor Executives’ Association (the Union), an unincorporated association of chief executive officers of 19 labor organizations which collectively represent Conrail‘s employees, opposes this unilateral drug-testing addition.1
The parties agree that Conrail‘s inclusion of drug testing in all physical examinations has created a labor dispute the resolution of which is governed by the Railway Labor Act (RLA), 44 Stat. 577, as amended,
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania agreed with Conrail that this case involves a minor dispute, because Conrail‘s policy of conducting physical examinations, which the parties agree is an implied term of their collective-bargaining agreement, arguably gave Conrail the discretion to include drug testing in all physical examinations. The Third Circuit reversed, ruling that “the undisputed terms of the implied agreement governing medical examinations cannot be plausibly interpreted to justify the new testing program.” 845 F. 2d 1187, 1193 (1988). Although we find the question to be a close one, we agree with the District Court, and with those Courts of Appeals that have held, on similar facts, that disputes concerning the addition of a drug-testing component to routine physical examinations are minor disputes. See, e. g., Railway Labor Executives Assn. v. Norfolk & Western R. Co., 833 F. 2d 700, 705-706 (CA7 1987); Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, Lodge 16 v. Burlington Northern R. Co., 802 F. 2d 1016, 1024 (CA8 1986).
This Court has not articulated an explicit standard for differentiating between major and minor disputes. It adopted the major/minor terminology, drawn from the vocabulary of rail management and rail labor, as a shorthand method of describing two classes of controversy Congress had distinguished in the RLA: major disputes seek to create contractual rights, minor disputes to enforce them. Elgin, J. & E. R. Co. v. Burley, 325 U. S. 711, 723 (1945).
The statutory bases for the major dispute category are
“relates to disputes over the formation of collective agreements or efforts to secure them. They arise where there is no such agreement or where it is sought to change the terms of one, and therefore the issue is not whether an existing agreement controls the controversy. They look to the acquisition of rights for the future, not to assertion of rights claimed to have vested in the past.” Burley, 325 U. S., at 723.
In the event of a major dispute, the RLA requires the parties to undergo a lengthy process of bargaining and mediation.
In contrast, the minor dispute category is predicated on
“contemplates the existence of a collective agreement already concluded or, at any rate, a situation in which no effort is made to bring about a formal change in terms or to create a new one. The dispute relates either to the meaning or proper application of a particular provision with reference to a specific situation or to an omitted case. In the latter event the claim is founded upon some incident of the employment relation, or asserted one, independent of those covered by the collective agreement, e. g., claims on account of personal injuries. In either case the claim is to rights accrued, not merely to have new ones created for the future.” Burley, 325 U. S., at 723.
A minor dispute in the railroad industry is subject to compulsory and binding arbitration before the National Railroad Adjustment Board,
Although experience in the rail industry suggested to Congress that the second category of disputes involved “comparatively minor” issues that seldom led to strikes, the Court recognized in Burley that this was not invariably the case. See 325 U. S., at 724; see also Trainmen, supra. Thus, the formal demarcation between major and minor disputes does not turn on a case-by-case determination of the importance of the issue presented or the likelihood that it would prompt the exercise of economic self-help. See National Railway Labor Conference v. International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, 830 F. 2d 741, 747, n. 5 (CA7 1987). Rather, the line drawn in Burley looks to whether a claim has been made that the terms of an existing agreement either establish or refute the presence of a right to take the disputed action. The distinguishing feature of such a case is that the dispute may be conclusively resolved by interpreting the existing agreement. See Garrison, The National Railroad Adjustment Board: A Unique Administrative Agency, 46 Yale L. J. 567, 568, 576 (1937).
To an extent, then, the distinction between major and minor disputes is a matter of pleading. The party who initiates a dispute takes the first step toward categorizing the dispute when it chooses whether to assert an existing contractual right to take or to resist the action in question. But6
To satisfy this need for some degree of judicial control, the Courts of Appeals uniformly have established some variant of the standard employed by the Third Circuit in this case:
“[I]f the disputed action of one of the parties can “arguably” be justified by the existing agreement or, in somewhat different statement, if the contention that the labor contract sanctions the disputed action is not “obviously insubstantial,” the controversy is a [minor dispute] within the exclusive province of the National Railroad Adjustment Board.” 845 F. 2d, at 1190, quoting Local 1477 United Transportation Union v. Baker, 482 F. 2d 228, 230 (CA6 1973).
Verbal formulations of this standard have differed over time and among the Circuits: phrases such as “not arguably justified,” “obviously insubstantial,” “spurious,” and “frivolous” have been employed.7 See, e. g., tive Engineers v. Burlington Northern R. Co.” cite=“838 F.2d 1087” pinpoint=“1091” court=“9th Cir.” type=“short“>Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers v. Burlington Northern R. Co., 838 F. 2d 1087, 1091 (CA9 1988) (reviewing different formulations used in the Ninth Circuit), cert. pending, No. 87-1631. “These locutions are essentially the same in their result. They illustrate the relatively light burden which the railroad must bear” in establishing exclusive arbitral jurisdiction under the RLA. Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, Lodge 16 v. Burlington Northern R. Co., 802 F. 2d, at 1022; see also Maine Central R. Co. v. United Transportation Union, 787 F. 2d 780, 783 (CA1) (“The degree of scrutiny, while ill-defined, is clearly light“), cert. denied, 479 U. S. 848 (1986).
“To the extent that abstract words can deal with concrete cases, we think that the concept embodied in the language adopted by these ... Courts of Appeals is correct.” Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U. S. 412, 421 (1978). Where an employer asserts a contractual right to take the contested action, the ensuing dispute is minor if the action is arguably justified by the terms of the parties’ collective-bargaining agreement. Where, in contrast, the employer‘s claims are frivolous or obviously insubstantial, the dispute is major.
III
In this case, the Union appears to agree that the “arguably justified” standard generally is the appropriate one for distinguishing between major and minor disputes. Brief for Respondents 35, n. 29. But it argues that the dispute in this case, properly viewed, is neither a major dispute nor a minor dispute. According to the Union, where an employer has
In a hybrid dispute, the Union contends, the employer may ask the Board to determine whether it has the contractual right to make a particular change, but must forgo unilateral implementation of the change until the Board reaches its decision. If the employer makes the change without establishing a clear and patent right to do so, the employer violates its statutory duty not to “change the rates of pay, rules, or working conditions of its employees, as a class, as embodied in agreements except in the manner prescribed in such agreements or in section 6.”
This approach unduly constrains the freedom of unions and employers to contract for discretion. Collective-bargaining agreements often incorporate express or implied terms that are designed to give management, or the union, a degree of freedom of action within a specified area of activity. See NLRB v. American National Insurance Co., 343 U. S. 395 (1952); Rutland Railway Corp. v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, 307 F. 2d 21, 35-36 (CA2 1962), cert. denied, 372 U. S. 954 (1963). Cf. Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U. S. 574, 580 (1960); see generally Cox & Dunlop, Regulation of Collective Bargaining by the National Labor Relations Board, 63 Harv. L. Rev. 389, 401 (1950). We have held under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) that no principle of labor law prohibits “[b]argaining for ... flexible treatment” and requires instead that, for each working condition, the employer “agre[e] to freeze a
Accordingly, we shall not aggravate the already difficult task of distinguishing between major disputes and minor disputes by adding a third category of hybrid disputes. We hold that if an employer asserts a claim that the parties’ agreement gives the employer the discretion to make a particular change in working conditions without prior negotiation, and if that claim is arguably justified by the terms of the parties’ agreement (i. e., the claim is neither obviously insubstantial or frivolous, nor made in bad faith), the employer may make the change and the courts must defer to the arbitral jurisdiction of the Board.
The effect of this ruling, of course, will be to delay collective bargaining in some cases until the arbitration process is exhausted. But we see no inconsistency between that result and the policies of the RLA.9 The core duties imposed upon employers and employees by the RLA, as set forth in
IV
This case, then, turns on whether the inclusion of drug testing in periodic and return-from-leave physical examinations is arguably justified by the parties’ collective-bargaining agreement. Neither party relies on any express provision of the agreement; indeed, the agreement is not part of the record before us. As the parties acknowledge, however, collective-bargaining agreements may include implied, as well as express, terms. See, e. g., Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. Air Line Pilots Assn., Int‘l, 442 F. 2d 251, 253-254 (CA8), cert. denied, 404 U. S. 871 (1971). Furthermore, it is well established that the parties’ “practice, usage and custom” is of significance in interpreting their agreement. See Transportation Union v. Union Pacific R. Co., 385 U. S. 157, 161 (1966). This Court has observed: “A collective bargaining agreement is not an ordinary contract for the purchase of goods and services, nor is it governed by the same old common-law concepts which control such private contracts. ... [I]t is a generalized code to govern a myriad of cases
In this case, Conrail‘s contractual claim rests solely upon implied contractual terms, as interpreted in light of past practice. Because we agree with Conrail that its contractual claim is neither frivolous nor obviously insubstantial, we conclude that this controversy is properly deemed a minor dispute within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Board.
A
The essential facts regarding Conrail‘s past practices-the facts in support of the positions of both Conrail and the Union-are not disputed.10 Since its founding in 1976, Conrail routinely has required its employees to undergo physical examinations under the supervision of its health services department. The parties agreed in the Court of Appeals, and the District Court found, that Conrail‘s authority to conduct physical examinations is an implied term of the collective-bargaining agreement, established by longstanding past practice and acquiesced in by the Union.
Conrail conducts physical examinations in three categories of cases. First, it always has required its employees to un-
Conrail has implemented medical standards for all three types of physical examination. Over the years, procedures for hearing tests, lung-capacity tests, eye tests, and cardiological tests have been modified to reflect changes in medical science and technology. These changes have been made by Conrail unilaterally, without consulting the Union.
Drug testing always has had some place in Conrail‘s physical examinations, although its role has changed with time. Conrail has included drug testing by urinalysis as part of periodic physical examinations whenever, in the judgment of the examining physician, the employee may have been using drugs. Drug screens also routinely have been performed as part of the return-to-duty physical examination of any employee who has been taken out of service previously for a drug-related problem; in addition, drug testing is included
On April 1, 1984, Conrail issued a Medical Standards Manual stating that a drug screen would be included in all periodic and return-to-duty physicals. For budgetary reasons, however, this policy then was applied only in Conrail‘s eastern region and was discontinued after six months.
On February 20, 1987, Conrail implemented the Medical Standards Manual in all of its regions, requiring drug testing as part of its periodic and return-to-duty physicals and, in addition, requiring follow-up examinations for all employees returning to duty after disqualification for any reason associated with drug use.11 An employee who tests positive for drugs will not be returned to service unless he provides a negative drug test within 45 days of the date he receives notice of the positive test. An employee whose first test is positive may go to Conrail‘s Employee Counseling Service for evaluation. If the evaluation reveals an addiction problem, and the employee agrees to enter an approved treatment program, the employee will be given an extended period of 125 days to provide a negative test.
The problem of drug use has been addressed by Conrail not only as a medical concern, but also as a disciplinary one. This Court noted earlier in the present Term that the railroad industry has adopted operating “Rule G,” which governs drug use by employees. Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives’ Assn., 489 U. S. 602, 606-607 (1989). As currently implemented by Conrail, Rule G provides: “The use of intoxicants, narcotics, amphetamines or hallucinogens by employees subject to duty, or their possession or use while on duty, is prohibited. Employees under medication before or while on duty must be certain that such use will not affect the safe
In addition, Conrail has implemented the Federal Railroad Administration regulations recently upheld in Skinner against a Fourth Amendment challenge. Since March 1986, Conrail has required all employees covered by the Hours of Service Act,
B
The dispute between the parties focuses on the meaning of these past practices. Conrail argues that adding urinalysis drug testing to its periodic and return-to-duty physicals is justified by the parties’ implied agreement regarding physical examinations, as indicated by their longstanding practice of permitting Conrail unilaterally to establish and change fitness-for-duty standards, to revise testing procedures, and to remove from service employees who are deemed unfit for duty under those standards and testing procedures.13 Conrail contends, specifically, that past practice reflects that drug use has been deemed relevant to job fitness, and that Conrail‘s physicians have the discretion to utilize drug testing as part of their medical determination of job fitness. The expansion of drug testing in February 1987, Conrail argues,
The Union contends that, even using the “arguably justified” standard, “it is simply not plausible” to conclude that the parties’ agreement contemplated that Conrail had the authority to include drug screens in all routine physical examinations. The Union argues that Conrail has departed materially from the parties’ agreement, as reflected by Conrail‘s past medical practice, in several respects. First, the Union states that past practice limited the use of drug testing in physical examinations to circumstances in which there was cause to believe the employee was using drugs; the current program, on the other hand, includes testing without cause. Second, in the Union‘s view, Conrail‘s general medical policy permits Conrail to remove an employee from active service until the employee‘s physical condition improves, but does not permit Conrail to discharge an employee for failure to get well within a specified time; the current drug-testing program includes a fixed time limit, and results in discharge rather than removal from active service. Third, the Union contends that the expansion of drug testing constitutes, for the first time, regulation by Conrail of the private, off-duty conduct of its employees.
In addition to pointing to these asserted departures from past practice, the Union argues that the absence of a “meeting of the minds” on the particulars of testing and confidentiality procedures renders untenable Conrail‘s claim that the parties tacitly have agreed to Conrail‘s current use of drug testing. Finally, the Union presents an alternative view of what Conrail has done: Conrail has expanded the disciplinary use of drug testing to employees not covered by the Federal Railroad Administration regulations, an expansion
C
In the end, the Union‘s arguments distinguishing drug testing from other aspects of Conrail‘s medical program, and asserting that Conrail‘s true motive is disciplinary, conceivably could carry the day in arbitration. But they do not convince us that Conrail‘s contractual arguments are frivolous or insubstantial. Conrail‘s interpretation of the range of its discretion as extending to drug testing is supported by the general breadth of its freedom of action in the past, and by its practice of including drug testing within routine medical examinations in some circumstances.
In the past, the parties have left the establishment and enforcement of medical standards in Conrail‘s hands. Conrail long has treated drug use as a matter of medical concern. Cf. American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 163-179 (3d ed. 1980) (substance abuse disorders); BNA Special Report, Alcohol & Drugs in the Workplace: Costs, Controls, and Controversies 1 (1986) (disciplinary and therapeutic approaches to drugs in the workplace); T. Denenberg & R. Denenberg, Alcohol & Drugs: Issues in the Workplace 18 (1983) (drug and alcohol abuse as treatable disorders); cf. Traynor v. Turnage, 485 U. S. 535, 562-564 (1988) (opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part) (alcohol dependence as medical problem). Indeed, although the scope of drug testing within physical examinations has changed over time, drug testing has always played some part (in appropriate circumstances) in Conrail‘s medical examinations. In short, there is no established “rule” between the parties that drug use is solely a disciplinary, and never a medical, concern.
There need be no “meeting of the minds” between the parties on the details of drug-testing methods or confidentiality standards for Conrail‘s current drug-testing program argu-
Conrail‘s well-established recognition of the relevance of drug use to medical fitness substantially weakens the Union‘s claim that Conrail now, for the first time, is engaging in medical testing that reveals facts about employees’ private off-duty conduct. Indeed, the fact that medical testing often detects physical problems linked to off-duty behavior makes it difficult to draw a bright line for jurisdictional purposes between testing which does, and that which does not, reflect upon private conduct.
As to the relevance of “cause,” we do not doubt that there is a difference between Conrail‘s past regime of limiting drug testing to circumstances in which there is cause to believe that the employee has used drugs and Conrail‘s present policy of including drug tests in all routine physical examinations. Indeed, the difference between testing with and without cause perhaps could be of significance to arbitrators in deciding the merits of drug-testing disputes. See generally Denenberg & Denenberg, Drug Testing from the Arbitrator‘s Perspective, 11 Nova L. Rev. 371, 387-392 (1987); Veglahn, What is a Reasonable Drug Testing Program?: Insight from Arbitration Decisions, 39 Lab. L. J. 688, 689-692 (1988). But under the RLA, it is not the role of the courts to decide the merits of the parties’ dispute. Our role is limited
As Conrail pointed out and urged at oral argument, “particularized suspicion” is not an accepted prerequisite for medical testing. Tr. of Oral Arg. 21. A physician‘s decision to perform certain diagnostic tests is likely to turn not on the legal concept of “cause” or “individualized suspicion,” but rather on factors such as the expected incidence of the medical condition in the relevant population, the cost, accuracy, and inherent medical risk of the test, and the likely benefits of detection. In designing diagnostic-testing programs, some employers establish a set of basic tests that are to be administered to all employees, see generally M. Rothstein, Medical Screening of Workers 16-19 (1984), regardless of whether there is cause to believe a particular employee will test positive. It is arguably within Conrail‘s range of discretion to alter its position on drug testing based on perceived changes in these variables.
We turn next to the alleged disciplinary consequences of a positive drug test. It is clear that Conrail is not claiming a right, under its medical policy, to discharge an employee because of a single positive drug test, a right many railroads assert under Rule G. See Skinner, 489 U. S., at 607. Furthermore, an employee has the option of requesting a period of rehabilitative treatment. Thus, it is surely at least arguable that Conrail‘s use of drug testing in physical examinations has a medical, rather than a disciplinary, goal.
The fact that for drug problems, unlike other medical conditions, Conrail‘s standards include a fixed time period in which the employee‘s condition must improve does serve to distinguish Conrail‘s drug policy from its response to other medical problems. Conrail has argued that it needs, for
V
Because we conclude that Conrail‘s contractual arguments are not obviously insubstantial, we hold that the case before us constitutes a minor dispute that is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Board. We make clear, however, that we go no further than to hold that Conrail has met the light burden of persuading this Court that its drug-testing practice is arguably justified by the implied terms of its collective-bargaining agreement. We do not seek to minimize any force in the Union‘s arguments that the discretion afforded Conrail by the parties’ implied agreement, as interpreted in light of past practice, cannot be understood to extend this far. Thus, in no way do we suggest that Conrail is or is not entitled to prevail before the Board on the merits of the dispute.
The judgment is reversed.
It is so ordered.
JUSTICE WHITE, concurring.
I join the opinion and judgment of the Court. I add these remarks only to emphasize that the parties agree and the courts below held that giving physical examinations is a matter covered by an implied agreement between Conrail and the Union. The company claims that although instituting drug testing is a change in conditions, the implied contract authorizes the change. I agree that this claim has substance and that the dispute is a minor one for the Adjustment Board to resolve. If the Board decides that the company is wrong about its authority under the contract, the
JUSTICE BRENNAN, with whom JUSTICE MARSHALL joins, dissenting.
I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the reasons stated by that court. The routine medical examinations Conrail relies on as precedent for its drug-testing program could result, at most, in an employee being held out of service until his or her health improved. Conrail would have us believe that, in accepting such medical testing, the Union (arguably) agreed to testing for use of an illegal substance that could result in the employee‘s firing. It is unsurprising that the Union agreed to nonpunitive medical testing, and that it acquiesced in the employer making such unilateral changes in testing procedures as it determined were advisable on the basis of current medical technology. But it is inconceivable to me that in so doing the Union was also agreeing to the systematic, suspicionless testing, on such terms and in such manner as the employer alone prescribed, of all employees for evidence of criminal activity that, under the employer‘s plan, could result in discharge.* Such a contention, in my view, is not “arguably“-it is frivolous. I agree with the Court of Appeals that “[u]ltimately, Conrail‘s argument rests on the premise that testing urine for cannabis metabolites is no different in kind from testing urine for blood sugar. This*
It may be helpful to note what the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board had to say in addressing the somewhat similar question whether, under the National Labor Relations Act, the addition of drug testing to a previously required physical examination constitutes a “substantial change in working conditions“:
“In cases where an employer has an existing program of mandatory physical examinations for employees or applicants, an issue arises as to whether the addition of drug testing constitutes a substantial change in the employees’ terms and conditions of employment. In general, we conclude that it does constitute such a change. When conjoined with discipline, up to and including discharge, for refusing to submit to the test or for testing positive, the addition of a drug test substantially changes the nature and fundamental purpose of the existing physical examination. Generally, a physical examination is designed to test physical fitness to perform the work. A drug test is designed to determine whether an employee or applicant uses drugs, irrespective of whether such usage interferes with ability to perform work.” NLRB General Counsel‘s Memorandum on Drug and Alcohol Testing, Memorandum GC 87-5 (Sept. 8, 1987), reprinted in BNA Daily Labor Report, No. 184, pp. D-1, D-2 (Sept. 24, 1987) (emphasis in original).
The general counsel similarly concluded that “a union‘s acquiescence in a past practice of requiring applicants and/or current employees to submit to physical examinations that did not include drug testing ... does not constitute a waiver of the union‘s right to bargain over drug testing.” Ibid.
Without suggesting that the NLRA question of a “substantial change in working conditions” is precisely the same as the one before us, I do think the general counsel has a better un-