United States

In 1992, Armstrong Country Memorial Hospital (Hospital) implemented a non-smoking policy that allowed for limited smoking in its psychiatric unit, as well as in designated smoking areas outside the hospital buildings and for employees in their personal vehicles on hospital property. Several years later, hospital administrators adopted a Tobacco Free Campus Policy ("TFC Policy"), which prohibited smoking anywhere on hospital property, including in private vehicles, subject to strict discipline. The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union and its local branch (collectively, "Union") filed a grievance stating that the policy violated the Union's collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the Hospital. The dispute proceeded to binding arbitration, which found that the TFC Policy was invalid insofar as the past Hospital policy of providing limited smoking areas had created the "expectation" of a "protected local working condition" for smokers. On appeal, the District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania vacated the decision, finding that the arbitrator's determination had violated the plain language of the CBA. The United States Court of Appeals for the Third District affirmed the District Court's decision, noting that under specific language of the CBA, reasonable management rights, including the right to implement the TFC Policy, were not limited by existing or past practices.