Jefferson County School District No. R-1 V. Shorey

This case requires us to determine the nature and extent of the grievance rights of an employee association which functions also as a labor union for public school teachers, and the rights of one of its teacher members, under a collective-bargaining agreement between the employee association and the employer school district. In Shorey v. Jefferson County Sch. Dist. No. R-1, 807 P.2d 1181 (Colo. App. 1990), the court of appeals held as follows: that the employee's grievance was not outside the scope of the provisions of the collective-bargaining agreement relating to arbitration; that the employee association was not equitably estopped from compelling non-binding arbitration of a grievance on behalf of one of its members who had been selected but later was rejected for a position, even though the association had previously processed a grievance on behalf of another member who, as a result of the grievance, was selected for the same position; and that the non-binding arbitration clause of the collective-bargaining agreement could not be construed to deny the employee her right to sue the school district for breach of contract. We granted certiorari to review the decision of the court of appeals, and we now affirm the judgment.