David M. Buday - Lawyer in Kalamazoo, MI

David M. Buday is a Member of Miller Johnson andhas been practicing law since 1989. Hispractice is focused on representing employers and management in a wide range oflabor and employment matters. While hislabor and employment practice covers a wide range of industries, Mr. Buday is chairof Miller Johnsons Employment? Health Care Practice Group. He also serves on the firms managementcommittee.

Employment Law

Mr. Buday provides day-to-day counsel to company owners,corporate executives and human resource professionals on a wide variety ofemployment issues. Because concern overcompliance is always one of the greatest fears employers have, he takes aproactive approach to compliance with the applicable federal and statelaws. These include:

— Hiringpractices

— Wageand hour law (Fair Labor Standards Act)

— Workforcereduction (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act)

— Difficultemployee issues? His advises clients on the challenges that arise related toattendance, substance abuse testing, disability and work leaves includingmilitary. He is knowledgeable about theFamily and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) andUniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).

— Harassmentand discrimination .

Mr. Buday has represented clients in more than one hundredcases in front of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and theMichigan Department of Civil Rights (MDCR). All matters have been dismissed or withdrawn and in none of the caseshas the client paid any money to resolve the cases nor have those agenciestaken the matter to a formal complaint.

Labor Law

Mr. Buday has worked with businesses on afull spectrum of labor relations including helping clients maintain theirunion-free status, collective bargaining, arbitrating cases before the AmericanArbitration Association, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service andindependent arbitrators, and handling unfair labor practice matters before theNational Labor Relations Board. He has extensive experience with major unions isfamiliar with their representatives including United Auto Workers (UAW), InternationalBrotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), United Steelworkers of America (USWA), MichiganNurses Association (MNA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), andUnited Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

He has built his reputation in labor relations on trust andunderstands that simply pounding a table and saying no is not effective laborrelations. Because he represents both unionized employers as well asnon-union employers, he is able to use that knowledge to his clientsadvantage. For example, he counseled aWest Michigan hospital during a large construction project and for the firsttime bidding was open to all contractors — both union and non-union — on amerit-based system. He helped thehospital manage picketing and other threats by organized labor. The project was completed without any delaysor disruptions.

Health Care Industry

Mr. Buday works closely with hospitals and health systems inaddressing the vital need for good staff relations in a changing andchallenging environment. In addition, healso represents medical providers, nursing facilities, and diagnosticcenters. He counsels health care clientson the full-range of employment matters including those already addressed. He is able to meet their needs for guidance onissues such as wage and hour, discharge documentation and ADA/FMLA which takeon a higher level of complexity in health care organizations. Mr. Buday understands the interplay between employment lawsand laws that are unique to health care facilities such as the WhistleblowersProtection provisions. He advisesclients on how to manage professional practices in regards to Peer ReviewPrivilege and licensing reporting requirements especially with respect toemployee incompetence and substance abuse. This allows health care organizations to focus on their mission ofproviding excellent patient care and services to achieve positiveoutcomes. Some examples of illustrativecases are:

— Herepresented a hospital in more than 20 discharge arbitrations over the lastfive years and in all but three of those cases, discharges were upheld. The other three individuals were brought backto work without back pay.

— Herepresented a West Michigan hospital in an arbitration involving a nurse whohad worked for the hospital for more than 20 years and was discharged forincompetence. The hospital won the caseand the discharge was upheld.

— Hebargained contracts with unions representing both operations and professionalstaff at a Southwest Michigan hospital. The successful outcome included a performance bonus which is unusual inthe health care industry.

— Hesuccessfully bargained contracts with the Michigan Nurses Association, withhaving flexibility placed into the contracts, employee co-pays for healthinsurance premiums and increased co-pays without workplace interruption.

ManufacturingIndustry

Mr. Buday has represented manufacturers in West Michiganboth in labor relations and employee relations. He has helped manufacturers beat back union organizing attempts, bothpre- and post-petition, from all major unions including USWA, UAW and IBT. He has bargained contracts for manufacturers,including innovative agreements with the UAW where there were only two jobclassifications and an emphasis upon management flexibility. In another case, he represented amanufacturer who discovered that more than two-thirds of its workforce hadengaged in misreporting to the Unemployment Insurance Agency. He assisted the client in managing thatmatter in such a way that individuals were able to be discharged and themanufacturer was able to successfully continue its operations without loss ofwork time.

Construction Industry

Mr. Buday has worked with contractors in a variety oftrades in helping them to maintain their union-free status. He has been involved in elections withseveral of the trades and helped assist clients who have been the subject oforganizing campaigns. He understands therules concerning secondary boycotts, picketing and prevailing wage issues.

Professional Affiliations,Activities and Honors

Mr. Buday belongs to the American Bar Association, the StateBar of Michigan, and the Kalamazoo County Bar Association. He is a member of Michigan Health andHospital Association and American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA) includingAHLAs labor and employment section. He is also involved in a number ofprofessional associations, including the Associated Builders and ContractorsWest Michigan Chapter and Kalamazoo Area Labor-Management Committee. Mr. Buday is past Chair of Miller JohnsonsEmployment and Labor Relations Section and is past Administrative Member of thefirms Kalamazoo office. Mr. Buday is namedin The Best Lawyers in America? for employment law? management, health carelaw, labor law? management, and litigation? labor and employment. He is named a Michigan Super Lawyer for employment andlabor.

Community Activities

Mr. Buday is on the Board of Trustees for the Irving S.Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and on the Board of Directors for theKalamazoo County Family YMCA. He servedon the Board of Directors for the Kalamazoo chapter of the American HeartAssociation and the Hospital Hospitality House of Southwest Michigan.

Education

Mr. Buday