Employee terminated for using department vehicle for non-work related purposes
Dep’t of Transportation v. Mirhosseini, OATH Index No. 916/18
A civil engineer with the New York City Department of Transportation was charged with repeatedly using a Department van for non-work related purposes; altering trip log sheets; misrepresenting his use of the vehicle by omitting entries on the trip log sheets; and failing to follow the directives of his supervisor.
OATH Administrative Law Judge Kara J. Miller did not credit employee’s claim that his supervisor had given him permission to use the van to run his personal errands and sustained those charges.
Judge Miller, however, found that the appointing authority did not prove that the employee falsified his time records or that he fraudulently received compensation for time he did not work.
The ALJ recommended that the employee be terminated from his position, which recommendation was adopted by the appointing authority.