Late last year a 29-year employee of the Civil Service was terminated due to what the employer cited as a series of events which occurred throughout the summer of that year.
At a hearing conducted this spring, an arbitrator heard evidence from the employees’ supervisors, who cited a number of examples of what they characterized as culpable conduct.
The reaction from the arbitrator was that it was difficult to believe such matters warranted termination, given that the employer failed to discipline the grievor at the time they occurred.
For these reasons, and because a number of the matters raised in the letter of termination had occurred several months before and/or were based on hearsay, the arbitrator ruled that dismissal in this case was excessive and unreasonable.
The grievor was ordered to return to work, albeit in a different location, with full compensation. The arbitror also ordered that certain documents relating to the termination be removed from the grievor’s personnel file.