Falsify maintenance records, kill people, get your job back!

[MCL1981]

http://wtop.com/tracking-metro-24-7/201 ... -back-job/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Repeatedly falsifies maintenance records. Lack of maintenance contributes significantly to the death an injury of customers. And he gets his job back, with back pay, full seniority, etc.

[srepetsk]

Wiedefeld has responded:

Metro General Manager/CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld today issued the following statement regarding a lawsuit filed by ATU Local 689 seeking reinstatement of an employee:

"We strongly disagree with the Arbitration award given the employee’s egregious acts. We intend to file a motion in District Court to vacate the arbitration award."

[Sand Box John]

I do not understand why anyone would seek to obtain reinstatement with an employer after being dismissed regardless of the reason for being fired. I happen to believe Mr. Haile will never be trusted by his supervisors or by those he may be assigned to supervise.

[MCL1981]

Unfortunately, if you're enough of a deadbeat to do this in the first place, you're enough of a deadbeat to not care about anything else either. This type employee is the type that treats WMATA as a place you go during the day in order to be issued a check. Like welfare, only you have to go there and punch a clock to collect. You or I would be mortified, and never want to show our face again. This type of person feels employment and a check is an entitlement, and as such feels no shame.

[Sand Box John]

"MCL1981"
Unfortunately, if you're enough of a deadbeat to do this in the first place, you're enough of a deadbeat to not care about anything else either. This type employee is the type that treats WMATA as a place you go during the day in order to be issued a check. Like welfare, only you have to go there and punch a clock to collect. You or I would be mortified, and never want to show our face again. This type of person feels employment and a check is an entitlement, and as such feels no shame.

If that is the attitude this individual holds then Wiedefeld should have the agencies lawyers file restraining orders in the jurisdictions served by WMATA to protect the employees and people they serve.

[MCL1981]

That would be fun to watch! Unfortunately he would have to fire and get protective orders against hundreds if not literally thousands of employees that follow the same philosophy. It's how WMATA got to the place they're currently in.

[deathtopumpkins]

Wiedefeld has responded:

"We strongly disagree with the Arbitration award given the employee’s egregious acts. We intend to file a motion in District Court to vacate the arbitration award."

I'm not a lawyer, but is that even legally allowed? I was under the impression that most arbitration agreements require you to accept the outcome of arbitration without appealing it through the court system, since that is the whole point of arbitration.

[STrRedWolf]

Most union agreements cover this, from general pay, benefits (health/retirement/vacation), all the way down to arbitration of job loss. I've never seen a union agreement that requires acceptance of an outcome (and I've read a few at MTA due to the nature of the job, but ATU and police union).

[mmi16]

Appears that everyone here believes laws and union agreements aren't worth the ink that is use to print them, let alone as cardinal elements of the society we inhabit.

[STrRedWolf]

They're only good as long as they're enforced. I won't be surprised if the union played fast and loose with this one, and WMATA hired some outside lawyers to go through the union collective bargaining agreement with a fine-tooth comb just to appeal this one.

[MCL1981]

Appears that everyone here believes laws and union agreements aren't worth the ink that is use to print them, let alone as cardinal elements of the society we inhabit.

IS that what you got out of this? Who cares that this guy (and hundreds of others) have been flasifying records and leading to all these problems. And that this behavior contributed to PEOPLE DYING. Nope. The real problem is people complaining about the union defending him.

[SemperFidelis]

I think it is obvious that some folks have taken thier lessons in rhetoric and debate from modern cable news. The man was making a simple point about this being a society of laws and contracts. To accuse him of not caring for the lives of commuters is nothing more than a canard.

"You don't support more money for police and fire fighters? What would the victims of 9/11 think?"

This dude should not be employed any more. I don't think anyone is saying he should. If, and I don't think any of us know his contract well enough to say so definitively, his contract is written in such a manner that the arbitration process is binding, then we should be focusing on how to better structure future contract negotiations.

The union has a legal obligation to stand up fir its members within the confines of its contract. If it doesn't, the MLRB can take them to task, fine them, perhaps even disband or deauthorize them. Should they risk that? Heck, if they don't stand up for this a--hole, he will have grounds to turn around and sue them. Would we be happier if he were to walk away with a few million in his pocket from the agency and the union for wrongful termination? Nope. Then the same people complaining about this would be complaining about that. Sometimes it is tasteless, but it is a union's job to protect its workers.

[Backshophoss]

Believe this person has an axe to grind,and wants to open a big can of worms that will give WMATA problems,PR wise.
Believe some of the testing requires permissions from the OP Center to do the tests needed,that person asked for,
and never got the permissions needed,or NO reply from the OP Center.
If that person is canned outright,wants to have the other people involved get canned as well.

That person did falsify the records,instead of finding a way to get the job done the right way-toast-gone.