An employee and his new shop steward (me) receive notice of the hearing. All we know is “consumer complaint”. We walk into the hearing knowing nothing. It is an e-mail sent by a passenger (we are a bus company) alleging that another passenger “his girlfriend” is riding for free. First off, I know the “his girlfriend” person, because she rides my bus too. I also know her husband. She is most certainly not the driver’s girlfriend. He is a deacon at his church. Whenever I see him between runs, he is reading the bible or praying. He is a devout Christian. The person making the complaint I know as well. Let’s just say she isn’t a nice or pleased person. Hasn’t been for many years.
Anyhow, the boss says I’m going to suspend you for 1 day without pay for this. His personnel jacket of six plus years has no infractions at all. It lists the two days he was out sick and the one passenger compliment he expected since being there.
No time to prepare. Judgement was handed down prior to any explanation. I’m carriage this to the local to help appeal it. Since being steward, I’ve had to sit over two failure to take in work assignment 1st warnings. If you have 2 “misses” in two months, it generates a warning. A miss is being 1 minute late for work. You punch in on the GPS on the bus. If you punch in at 4:16 with a 4:15 report time, you are in distress.
The only other thing that I’ve had as steward is pay for cancellation of work during a snowstorm. They have to inform you at least 2 hours before report time work is canceled, otherwise they owe you 3 hours pay. I called 3, 2 1 hours prior and at report time for work to find out the status, only to be told “call back later”. Out of 26 drivers, the only one to get paid is the one now in distress. Despite the snowstorm, he got to work on time. He waited 5 hours on the bus for orders to go before being sent home. This looks like they are punishing him for this. The rest of us have filed a injustice to get our money because they did not honor their agreement.
This employer is very hostile and belligerent. We don’t get much money. We don’t get too much time off. Requests for time off are turned down more than 50% of the time. The equipment is filthy, ancient and in poor condition. They are the buck bidder. The contract that represents 95% of their business is up. In the past, this has been a non-competitive bid. Now they have several competitors. There is a real possibility we will lose the contract. This is the excuse used to give us a 1% raise in 2007, 0% in 2008, 2009 and 2010. They refuse to negotiate the 2011 contract with the union at this time. This 1,0,0,0 contract and some other things is why I am the new shop steward. I ran on the promise that if I can’t get at least 1,1,1 for 2011, 2012, 2013 I will step down as steward and start the petition to decertify the union. At least we can save the + per week union dues.
All eyes are on me. I need to help this employee. I had no ability to by the book defend him. He was convicted with the only evidence being an e-mailed complaint by a bitter person. What can I do?

Best answer:

Answer by Betsy
What you can do depends on your contract. Your union should have someone with whom you can discuss about the matter. Usually that person would be an executive director, a head, a business agent, or a secretary-treasurer. You should discuss with someone like that regarding the circumstances. There should also be an attorney available to you through the union.

What does the contract say about employee restraint and grievances? Hopefully you can file a injustice over the unpaid suspension. Then, hopefully, it can go to binding arbitration, where the judge will probably rule in his favor and award him back pay for the time he was off.

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