Rhode Island Laborers' Dist. Council v. State

• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: WEISBERGER
• Citation: Rhode Island Laborers' Dist. Council v. State, 592 A.2d 144 (R.I. 1991)
• Decision Date: 06 June 1991
• Docket Number: No. 90-32-A,90-32-A
• Parties: RHODE ISLAND LABORERS' DISTRICT COUNCIL v. STATE of Rhode Island. ppeal.

Page 144

592 A.2d 144

RHODE ISLAND LABORERS' DISTRICT COUNCIL v. STATE of Rhode Island.

No. 90-32-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

June 6, 1991.

Richard Skolnik, Lipsey & Skolnik and Donald S. Iannazzi, Public Service Employees, Providence, for plaintiff.

Lauren E. Jones, Jones Associates, Providence and Vincent Piccirilli, Piccirilli & Sciaccia, Cranston, for defendant.

OPINION

WEISBERGER, Justice.

This case comes before us on appeal by the Rhode Island Laborers' District Council on behalf of the Rhode Island Judicial Professionals and Technical Employees Local Union No. 808 (union) from a judgment of the Superior Court that vacated in part an arbitrator's award. The award declared that although a supervisory employee had been insubordinate, the discharge of that employee was not justified, and therefore, the discharge was modified by the arbitrator to a six-month suspension. We affirm the judgment of the Superior Court. The facts of the case as found by the arbitrator are as follows.

Robert Kando (grievant or Kando) was a supervising deputy clerk who was responsible for personnel matters in the Fifth Division of the Rhode Island District Court. The appointing authority for the supervising deputy clerks was and is the Chief Judge of the District Court. Under the terms of the collective-bargaining agreement between the union and the State of Rhode Island, the Chief Judge of the District Court or [his or her] designee "shall have sole jurisdiction over the management of the operations of [his or her] court as provided by law including, but not limited to, the work to be performed, the scheduling of work, the establishment of shifts and hours of work, the promotion of employees, fixing and maintaining standards of quality of work, methods of operations, the right to hire, transfer, discipline or discharge for just cause." (Contract art. II, sec. 2.1.) The chief judge discharged Kando for (1) granting an employee vacation time while aware that the chief judge had denied the same days; (2) failing to maintain a log book; (3) taking unauthorized family sick leave; and (4) failing to attend a meeting that the chief judge had specifically ordered him to attend on August 25, 1987.

In considering these charges, the arbitrator found it perplexing to understand why Kando granted an employee vacation days that were specifically denied by the chief judge. The arbitrator found Kando's explanation to be less than satisfactory. Nevertheless, he put this charge aside by saying that the chief judge seemed to have been satisfied with a verbal warning in connection with this charge.

In respect to the maintenance of a log book, the arbitrator found that log books were distributed to the clerks for the calendar year 1987. He found that Kando gave no explanation for his not using the book that was specifically purchased for his use. Despite repeated reminders to maintain his log book, grievant assumed his calendar was an acceptable alternative. He never bothered to check this substitution with anyone. The arbitrator remarked that "[t]he fact that now no one seems to know where grievant's calendar is may seem suspicious, but there is not sufficient basis to conclude that grievant never kept these records on a wall calendar or that keeping the records on a wall calendar was improper."

In respect to the August 25 failure to attend a meeting pursuant to the direct order of the chief judge, the excuse was that grievant was attending to his sick father pursuant to family sick leave. The arbitrator regarded this as the most serious charge. The arbitrator's comments on this aspect of the grievance are significant:

"Grievant cavalierly indicates that as long as he was on family sick leave he did not have to attend the meeting. Grievant offers no explanation why he could come to work to fill in his time card one day and could not come in another day for a meeting. While there is not [sic] doubt but that grievant was going through a very difficult time at home, there is simply no explanation given why he did not call the Chief Judge at sometime before Tuesday afternoon to be excused from the meeting. He was aware that he was required to be at the meeting and once again grievant seems to try to rely on a technicality by saying he did not have to attend the meeting if he was out of work that day on family sick leave. Even if he thought he could merely grant himself family sick leave, he still had an obligation to discuss the situation with the Chief Judge who instructed him to appear at the meeting. He was specifically instructed that if he could not make the meeting to speak directly to the Chief Judge. He simply disregarded the Chief Judge's instructions to appear at the meeting and the instruction to speak with the Judge if he had a problem with attending the meeting.

"Besides being insubordinate, he created additional confusion by not bothering to tell anyone what the circumstances of his absence were. His staff at the Fifth Division all assumed that he was on vacation. Grievant must have been aware there would be a problem if he did not show up at the meeting which was intended to deal with questions about his following the procedures properly.

"Grievant was insubordinate in not coming to the meeting and not calling the Chief Judge to explain that...