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Law360 (March 10, 2021, 7:31 PM EST ) A hotel union has urged a New York federal judge to confirm three arbitration awards requiring a Manhattan hotel to give severance and other benefits to workers laid off during the pandemic, saying the decisions aligned with their collective bargaining agreement.
In its petition Tuesday, the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, AFL-CIO said that Stanford New York LLC acknowledged when it shut down in April 2020 that severance and benefits were owed to the workers affected by the closure. But the hotel hasn't yet paid them or made contributions to the health benefit fund on their behalf, as required by their CBA, the union said.
The union took Stanford New York to arbitration over the matter and won three awards that require the hotel to either make a payment or post a bond for the severance and health care contributions, according to the petition. Those awards were "carefully grounded" both in the CBA's provisions and industry practice, the union said.
"The awards draw their essence from the parties' collective bargaining and its expansive arbitration clause. There are no valid grounds to vacate the awards and the hotel persists in refusing to comply with the awards," the union said.
Further, the union noted that New York courts have long given awards from the Office of the Impartial Chairperson, like the ones at issue in the suit, "wide deference." And the impartial chairperson who issued the awards had "far surpassed the judicially crafted minimalist standard for review of arbitral awards," the union contended.
The union also argued that even if there were grounds for challenging the awards, the hotel was barred from doing so because it didn't move to vacate the awards within 90 days. According to the union, the impartial chairperson found that the amounts due totaled roughly $1.2 million in one award. The union also asked for prejudgment interest in the case.
Stanford New York couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday. Counsel for the union didn't respond Wednesday to a request for comment.
The union is represented by Barry N. Saltzman and Andrew D. Midgen of Pitta LLP.
Counsel information for Stanford New York wasn't yet available Wednesday.
The case is New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, AFL-CIO v. Stanford New York LLC, case number 1:21-cv-02012, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
--Editing by Leah Bennett.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
