Labor Arbitration and Overlapping and Conflicting Remedies for Employment Discrimination

Abstract

Labor arbitrators and other tribunals face serious problems of coordination as the result of overlap, as well as conflict, between arbitration systems and a broad array of public regulation. Overlap and conflict have increased as both collective agreements and the regulation that governs them have become more complex and detailed. Remedies in some areas, such as employment discrimination on account of race or sex, run like water.' If employment discrimination occurred in an enterprise under contract with the federal government, a remedy might be provided by the National Labor Relations Board, state courts, federal courts, state and municipal fair employment agencies, or the Department of Labor. Remedies might be based not only on the statutes and executive orders that these forums call to mind but also on the Civil Rights Act of 1866,2 the Fair Labor Standards Act as amended in 1963,3 the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967,4 the Constitution, and ancient equitable doctrines making representative powers powers in trust.5 Furthermore, standards embodied in