Public Employee Press

Arbitration Victory: $50,000
Parent Coordinator wins back pay

Parent Coordinator Karen Crutch worked diligently and without incident at her job at PS 15 in Queens from the time she was hired in 2004 through June 30, 2006. The Local 372 member was responsible for working closely with parents on academic issues and was supervised by the school’s principal until she retired in 2006.

Things changed drastically later that year when a new principal arrived who did not like the way Crutch did her job. “I was shocked, to say the least,” she said. In July 2007, with no disciplinary process, the principal asked her to resign as of Aug. 31.

Crutch quickly contacted Schools Division Council Rep Ingrid Fraser, who filed a grievance in September challenging her dismissal by the Dept. of Education. “Management missed the message,” she said. “You need a good reason to terminate someone.”

No agreement could be reached, and the case went to arbitration on Oct. 6, 2009. The union argued that DOE lacked good and sufficient reason to discharge Crutch and had violated the department’s mandatory “Guidelines on Discipline of Parent Coordinators.”

DOE maintained that it did have adequate grounds for the dismissal and claimed that the guidelines were just guidelines and not mandatory.

The arbitrator found that DOE failed to present any evidence that the member’s job performance was deficient and determined that the agency had not used proper progressive discipline. “The Guidelines clearly and unambiguously mandate the application of progressive discipline in all instances involving the correction of job performance,” said the arbitrator, who ruled that Crutch should be reinstated with two years of back pay, which amounts to about $65,000.

“I can hardly wait to get back to work,” said Crutch. “I have to thank Ms. Fraser and my attorney for helping get my job back.”