February 21, 2014
By Jordan Jones
In City of Troy, the arbitrator rejected a grievance over the City’s denial of a police officer’s tuition reimbursement request due to the City’s budgetary constraints.
Filed Under: Arbitration Rulings, Discipline
February 13, 2014
By Emily Nelson
Plaintiff Leif Henry, a police officer for the City of Allentown, Pennsylvania, filed suit against the City alleging, among other things, disability discrimination and retaliation under the Rehabilitation Act after a superior officer complained about Henry’s request for a medical accommodation, and Henry was then subjected to an internal affairs investigation. The district court dismissed both claims in Henry v. City of Allentown, finding that Henry had not shown that he suffered an “adverse employment action” by his superior officer, Chief Roger MacLean.
Filed Under: Disability Discrimination, Discrimination
February 12, 2014
By Jordan Jones
In City of Chicago, the arbitrator, citing “management rights” denied police officers’ grievance for not being assigned overtime for “Operation Safe Summer.”
Filed Under: Arbitration Rulings, Discipline
December 11, 2013
By Mitchel Wilson
In Sadie v. City of Cleveland, 118 FEP Cases 1104 (6th Cir. 2013), the appellate court upheld the lower court for dismissing the suit of a group of former Cleveland police officers who were not retained after age 65. Their suit alleged that the City’s mandatory retirement program violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), an Ohio discrimination statute, and equal protection of the 14th Amendment.
Filed Under: Age Discrimination, Discrimination, Legal Rights
December 11, 2013
By Jim Cline
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.
Filed Under: Constitutional Rights, Contract Interpretation, Legal Rights
December 11, 2013
By Anthony Rice
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.
Filed Under: Arbitration Rulings, Discipline
December 9, 2013
By Anthony Rice
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.
Filed Under: Arbitration Rulings, Discipline
December 9, 2013
In Moore v. County of Camden, 20 WH Cases 2d 1369 (D.N.J. 2013), a New Jersey federal district ruled declined to dismiss and set for trial a Dispatch Managers Claim that he was retaliated against after he presented his health issues.
Filed Under: Disability Discrimination, Discrimination, Legal Rights
December 6, 2013
By Mitchel Wilson
In an unpublished decision Nazario v. City of Riverside, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s decision to dismiss a discharged Riverside PD officer’s Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (“USERRA”) claims, denying him a trial, because he could not show he was fired and not rehired because of his military service.
Filed Under: Disability Discrimination, Discrimination, Legal Rights, USERRA
December 4, 2013
By Anthony Rice
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.
