July 28, 2011

Employee terminated for failure to “call-in” and physical confrontations with co-workers


Employee terminated for failure to “call-in” and physical confrontations with co-workers
Kampel v Westchester County Health Care, Corp., 286 AD2d 390

Robert Kampel, was served with disciplinary charges alleging excessive absences, failure to comply with the established call-in procedure to report his absences, and two incidents in which he pushed co-workers. Found guilty, Kampel was terminated from his position.

Finding that the disciplinary determination was supported by substantial evidence, the Appellate Division, citing the Pell standard, Pell v Board of Education, 34 NY2d 222, sustained the penalty imposed. The court said that dismissal was not so disproportionate to the offenses for which Kampel had been found guilty as to be “shocking to one's sense of fairness.”