The state Supreme Court is holding in reserve a petition to
appeal the firing of a City of Bradford garbage man while a
somewhat similar case from Westmoreland County is being considered
by the justices.
The union for the City of Bradford Department of Public Works,
Teamsters Local Union 110, has filed a petition for allowance to
appeal to the Supreme Court on behalf of James Taylor. Taylor was
terminated from his job with the sanitation department in 2003 for
stealing money from a purse in the garbage while he was on
duty.
He was reinstated by an arbitrator’s ruling, as the arbitrator
said the collective bargaining agreement did not allow for
termination as a penalty for theft. City of Bradford officials
appealed that decision to the McKean County Court. President Judge
John Cleland reversed the arbitrator’s decision, saying to prevent
the city from firing someone for stealing from a city resident
while on duty “would seriously interfere with the city’s ability to
perform a core municipal function.”
The union appealed to the Commonwealth Court, which upheld
Cleland’s ruling. The Court ruled a public employer cannot bargain
away its right to terminate an employee “whose conduct hampers the
employer’s performance of its duties or its ability to insure the
health, safety and welfare of its citizens.”
The union then filed a petition to appeal to the state Supreme
Court, where two similar cases were also being considered –
Westmoreland Intermediate Unit #7 vs. Westmoreland Intermediate
Unit #7 Classroom Assistants Educational Support Personnel
Association PSEA/NEA; and Allegheny County Airport Authority vs.
Construction General Laborers and Material Handlers Union 1058.
The cases all relate to provisions of collective bargaining
agreements and a public employer’s right to terminate an
employee.
A notation in the docket for the case of City of Bradford vs.
Teamsters Local Union 110 reads, “And now this 12th day of October,
2006, the petition for allowance of appeal is reserved pending
decision in” the Westmoreland County case.
A notation in the docket of the Allegheny County Airport case
reads the same way.
In the Westmoreland County case, an employee of the IU7, whose
job as classroom assistant was to assist the teacher with 11
emotionally disturbed children, overdosed on a Fentanyl pain patch
in an elementary school restroom during work hours. She was
terminated from employment for “immorality,” which was challenged
by the union that represented her.
An arbitrator reinstated her, saying the IU lacked “just cause”
for dismissal. The IU7 appealed the decision to the county Court of
Common Pleas, which vacated the arbitrator’s award. The ruling of
the county court was that, in the collective bargaining agreement,
the IU did not relinquish its ability to fire someone who possessed
or used an illegal drug while working with the children.
The union which represented the classroom assistant then
appealed to the Commonwealth Court, which also upheld the woman’s
dismissal from her job.
The Commonwealth Court ruled that the IU could not have
bargained away its right to terminate an employee for such
misconduct. “Cognizant of our prior cases emphasizing the need for
the government to control its powers that are essential to the
proper discharge of the functions entrusted to that government
body” and recognizing that a public employer cannot bargain away
that control, the Court affirmed the Court of Common Pleas
decision.
That case was argued before the state Supreme Court Sept.
11.
It is currently awaiting a decision.
The other related case involves a man fired from employment with
the Allegheny County Airport Authority for falsifying his time
records, refusing to surrender his security badge and making his
whereabouts unknown while on company time.
He was fired and his union filed a grievance. The matter went
before an arbitrator, who reinstated the man after a 30-day
suspension, saying the man was fired without “just cause” under the
collective bargaining agreement. The authority suffered no serious
loss because of the man’s actions and his misconduct did not strike
at the core of operating a safe facility, the arbitrator ruled.
The authority appealed to the Court of Common Pleas, which
upheld the arbitration ruling, saying that the man’s job was not
essential to the mission of the airport. The authority appealed to
the Commonwealth Court, which overturned the previous ruling.
The man’s “misconduct had the potential to impact third parties
whom the authority was charged with protecting, namely those
individuals who rely on the airport to remain secure while they are
patronizing it,” the Commonwealth Court ruled.
It is a core function of the authority to ensure the security of
the airport, and the authority cannot bargaining that away in a
collective bargaining agreement, the Commonwealth Court ruled.
The union appealed to the state Supreme Court.
