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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Reinstating an employee to his former position after being found guilty of disciplinary charges ruled irrational under the circumstances

Reinstating an employee to his former position after being found guilty of disciplinary charges ruled irrational under the circumstances
Matter of Social Services Employees Union, Local 371 v City of New York Administration for Children's Services, 2008 NY Slip Op 08979, Decided on November 18, 2008, Appellate Division, First Department

In this appeal, the Appellate Division vacated a Supreme Court’s confirmation of a disciplinary grievance arbitration award that Local 371 had asked the lower court to confirm.

In addition, the court specifically granted the Administration for Children’s Services’ (ACS) Article 75 motion objecting to the disciplinary arbitrator’s award providing for the grievant’s reinstatement to his former supervisory position.

According to the ruling, the grievant, a Child Protection Specialist Supervisor II ACS, pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the fourth degree. The offense to which he had pleaded guilty: filing false income tax returns using confidential ACS client information to fraudulently claim entitlement to state and local tax credits.

The Appellate Division said: “We find that the arbitrator's award, which determined that while grievant had engaged in a censurable course of conduct that justified punishment he should be restored to his supervisory position at ACS, is irrational and defies common sense.”

If reinstated to the position of ACS supervisor, said the court, the grievant again would have access to the ACS database from which he extracted the information he used to perpetrate his crime.

The court then remanded the matter to the arbitrator for reconsideration of an appropriate penalty.

The text of the decision in posted on the Internet at:

http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/3dseries/2008/2008_08979.htm
By Public Employment Law Press on Thursday, November 20, 2008
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Source: Initially published on the Internet in New York Public Personnel Law. Reproduced with permission. Copyright© 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 by the Public Employment Law Press.