Attention Bargaining Unit Members, as part of an ongoing series, NAAE is publishing case studies involving some of the progress made over the past few years. Stay tuned, there’s more to come…
BROKEN FOOT? NO PROBLEM — JUST WALK TO THE DOCTOR’S.
NAAE represents a PPQ Officer grieving an Agency decision to suspend him for 14 days for alleged misuse of his GOV. The Agency claims the employee used his GOV, without obtaining his supervisor’s prior approval, to drive himself, on his lunch hour, to a near-by doctor’s office to get emergency medical treatment for his fractured foot, a job-related injury. According to the Agency, this use of his GOV violated MRP 5400, the Agency’s Motor Vehicle Manual, even though the Manual expressly permits an employee to use his GOV to go to lunch (if not out of route) and to attend to medical emergencies. The Agency has thus far refused to back off its bizarre interpretation of its GOV Manual or its over-the-top punishment, the 14-day suspension, for GOV misuse. NAAE has invoked arbitration of the employee’s grievance and is awaiting the arbitrator’s decision on a procedural issue before arguing the merits of the suspension before the arbitrator.