In the City of Markham, an Illinois arbitrator ruled that the city violated its CBA by assigning members of specialty units (traffic detail, detectives, community service, etc.) to fulfil the minimum staffing requirements of four full-time patrol officers. This case because the contract provision at issue was not developed during bargaining decided in interest arbitration.
In County of Allegheny, 134 LA 134 (Heekin 2014) the arbitrator upheld a discharge of a corrections officer who used his sick time, rather than his vacation time, to travel to Dallas for a photo shoot for a body building magazine. The Officer's participation was confirmed with posted pictures of his photo shoot on Facebook. The arbitrator found just cause for the Officer’s discharge given that the CBA stated that sick leave was “not a right of taking” such as vacation and the fact that a poor discipline record including a recent last chance agreement. The arbitrator rejected the Union’s claim that there was a “right” to use sick leave as if it was a form of vacation.
In State of Alaska, 133 LA 1436 (DiFalco 2014) an arbitrator ruled that the State properly paid Correction Officers who voluntarily demoted themselves back to a lower classification, even though the result was that they were paid less than if they had not been promoted in the first place. The arbitrator conceded that while the results of this were unfair to several Corrections Officers, he stressed that it was not his job to do what was fair but to interpret the contract language as it appeared in the CBA.
In Village of Shiloh, 133 LA 234 (Suardi 2013) the Arbitrator held that the Village did not violate the CBA with the Village’s police officers when it scheduled certain cover shifts not explicitly provided for in the CBA.
In City of Butler, an arbitrator held that the City did not violate its CBA when it paid a police sergeant time and a half in overtime pay for working during a holiday parade, rather than providing both overtime pay and holiday pay premium.
In Broward County Sheriff’s Office, the Arbitrator held that the city could not unilaterally change the way in which the Union President was paid for doing Union work on the clock, especially when such a change violated an established past practice.
In City of Marion, the arbitrator denied the police dispatcher’s grievance for in-service incentive training pay finding that the grievance was not filed timely under the CBA.
In City of Naperville v. Ill. Fraternal Order of Police, the Illinois Appellate Court held the issue of refusing to hire a police officer to operate a snowplow, while off duty, was not arbitrable because the parties’ CBA did not have an expressed provision stating otherwise.
Occasionally, an arbitration decision calls out for a bit more explanation and the Arbitrator’s Ruling allowing the Ocala Fire Department to “Mass Test” its Firefighters is one such decision. As described in our recent case note on the decision, the arbitrator found that the reasonable suspicion language in the CBA allowed the City to undertake a “mass test” all firefighters with any type of access to fire trucks from which narcotics had gone missing.
In Baltimore County, Arbitrator Richard Trotter granted the Union’s grievance for lost compensation for Deputy Sheriffs who are subject to being called into work while they are off duty.
