EOLWD MassDLR Update

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the e-newsletter of the Massachusetts Division of Labor Relations, MassDLR Update.

We expect to transmit this newsletter every two months in order to inform interested parties of developments at the Massachusetts DLR. Each issue will contain important and useful information such as:

• Recent decisions
• Practice tips
• Frequently asked questions

I hope that you find this issue helpful and that you refer to it time and again as you practice before the hearing officers, mediators and arbitrators at the DLR.

Thank you,

Michael A. Byrnes
DLR Director

In recent weeks, Governor Deval Patrick made two crucial appointments to the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board (CERB), the three-member board charged primarily with hearing appeals of dismissals and Hearing Officer decisions.  First, on August 20, 2008, Governor Patrick appointed Elizabeth Neumeier, Esq., as the first per diem Member of the CERB.  Then, on October 27, 2008, Governor Patrick appointed Marjorie Wittner as Chair of the CERB.  With the two appointments, the CERB now has a quorum and will begin conducting business, particularly as it relates to the issuance of final decisions and the consideration of backlogged probable cause determinations of cases filed prior to the enactment of the legislation that reorganized the Commonwealth’s labor relations agencies into the Division of Labor Relations, Chapter 145 of the Acts of 2007.