In the City of Ocala, an arbitrator found that the City did not violate the CBA when it urine tested 19 firefighters who had access to two fire trucks from which narcotics went missing.
In City of Chicago, the arbitrator reduced the Grievant’s suspension from 20 days to 10 days for a Chicago officer charged with interference in the execution of search warrant during an investigation of a car bombing by a suburban Police Department in which the Officer’s friend was a suspect. The arbitrator ordered the reduction after he concluded that the Officer did not interfere with the execution of a search warrant, but did agree that the Officer had been verbally abusive to the investigating officers.
In CSC Applied Technologies, the arbitrator sustained the grievance finding that Management overlooked mitigating factors when it terminated an assistant fire chief from service on the grounds that he failed to meet medical requirements.
In City of Lorain, the arbitrator found the Ohio City had just cause for the termination of an EMT based on his voluntarily resignation to avoid prosecution of “office theft.”
In Bell v. City of Harvey, the district court suspended the City’s motion for summary judgment and granted Police Sergeant Andrew Bell more time to present evidence to substantiate his claims of five instances of retaliation for filing an age discrimination claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).
In Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office, the arbitrator found there was just cause for firing an off duty police officer who fired warning shots during a domestic dispute with her ex-boyfriend. Arbitrator Joseph D’Eletto rejected the claim of the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association that her acquittal in Cleveland municipal court on an unlawful discharge charge barred Department discipline. The Arbitrator also sustained the Department charge that she had been untruthful when she described the precursor to the shots to be a “struggle” where no physical contact had actually occurred.
Ohio Patrolmen's Benevolent Ass'n v. City of Trenton, the Court of Appeals of Ohio upheld an arbitration award ordering the “involuntary resignation” of a police sergeant. The unusual case led to an unusual remedy which the union then unsuccessfully sought to have set aside in court.
In City of Marengo, Arbitrator Stanley Kravit found the termination of a police officer to be without just cause when the City improperly ordered the officer to return to work while she was recovering from an injury. Kravit rejected the City’s claim that it was “insubordination” to refuse to return to work once the City’s hired physician found her fit when this finding was against the weight of the evidence that she was, in fact, unable to safely work. Kravitt ruled that the City violated the due process requirement—that all relevant evidence be fairly considered before discharge.
\In Carlton County, the Union failed to prove its claim of a past practice in the Minnesota Sheriff’s Department of pairing one of the four most senior field deputies, with one of the four least senior field deputies when shift assignments are made. The County therefore did not violate the CBA when it paired the Grievant, one of the four most senior deputies, as the junior deputy to another of the four most senior deputies.
In City of Inkster, 131 LA 1179 (Brodsky, 2013), Arbitrator Deborah Brodsky concluded that the Michigan City violated the CBA when it deducted the pro rata remainder of equipment allowances paid to officers in a lump sum at the start of the year. The deduction was improper because the CBA only allows for the deduction when an officer is “terminated” but in this case, the officers were laid off and subject to return.
