Emergency replacement

gotstamps · Jan 17, 2018

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote">kj said 
Exactly what happened to me today. RCA for 2 Years and 1 month. I was off yesterday. By 8:32 am I got a text to report to work. For etiquette side, I replied I have dental appointment. PM then told me that I am required to report to work immediately. Then told me I am to report to work today which in my schedule I am still off. When I reported this morning he give me a Letter of warning and charge that I failed to report to work. He charge me with "Unscheduled absences". He said he talked to Union and that "I as an RCA is on call up to 10:00 in the morning". Called and emailed Union, no reply yet. </blockquote>
First lesson learned... never answer the phone or a text if you don't or can't work. I doubt a "Union Rep" told him that as there is nowhere in writing that states subs NOR Regulars are on call for any amount of time. Grieve the LOW as discipline should be progressive AND there is NO "on-call" in our craft. A decent union steward should be able have that dismissed, especially if there has been no other disciplinary issues. If you can, it may be helpful to print out the text "conversation" for your union rep.

Rt2mailman · Jan 17, 2018

Kj, There are many things that were done wrong by your manager in this case. First, you are not an on call employee, second a low must be given after an investigation has occurred (you didn't mention being calling in for an investigative interview, which you should require union representation when that occurs). Third, any discipline should be progressively given, unless you have been spoken to" officially" before this time, there's no progressive discipline. You must file a grievance, and in the complaint section write:" Was the discipline (letter of warning) justly given and was this discipline progressive? ". On the NRLCA website, there is an area called" defenses to discipline", I think you should read through. In there, it discusses that there must be a rule, that rule must be equally enforced, you must be aware of that rule, to have intentionally broken that rule. If your manager didn't have an investigative interview with you, he has not established any of these" facts" before disciplining you, which he must. You should easily win this grievance.

Cliff Clavin · Jan 18, 2018

<blockquote class="spPostEmbedQuote">Rt2mailman said 
Kj, There are many things that were done wrong by your manager in this case. First, you are not an on call employee, second a low must be given after an investigation has occurred (you didn't mention being calling in for an investigative interview, which you should require union representation when that occurs). Third, any discipline should be progressively given, unless you have been spoken to" officially" before this time, there's no progressive discipline. You must file a grievance, and in the complaint section write:" Was the discipline (letter of warning) justly given and was this discipline progressive? ". On the NRLCA website, there is an area called" defenses to discipline", I think you should read through. In there, it discusses that there must be a rule, that rule must be equally enforced, you must be aware if that rule, to have intentionally broken that rule. If your manager didn't have an investigative interview with you, he has not established any of these" facts" before disciplining you, which he must. You should easily win this grievance. </blockquote>
I think we should have the " Defenses to Discipline" posted here at Rural Info, that is a very important topic.

btdtret · Jan 18, 2018

Cliff Clavin et al -- Search for "defenses to discipline" in RI's KNOWLEDGEBASE section for the 150-page NALC document.

-- Should be something useful in those 150 pages ( which I have yet to read )