Public Employee Press

Local 1549 saves member's job and home

The union saved Clerical Associate Karen Jones from losing her job, her home and her unemployment benefits after Gouverneur Hospital management blamed her in a 2008 incident in which a child fell into the back of her cubicle at the Patient Accounts Dept.

Jones reported what she had experienced to her supervisor, but after consulting Chief Shop Steward Derrick Davis, she declined to say more because she had not actually witnessed the incident.

Management maintained that she was legally mandated to report the incident. Jones's manager was in the area and did not report it. But management terminated the Local 1549 member, a 15-year Civil Service employee with no prior negative record and the sole support of her family, while the manager was not fired.

"Management scapegoated her," said Local 1549 2nd Vice President Ralph Palladino, who took up the case. Local 1549 Attorney Martin Druyan represented Jones when it went to the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings - which decided to restore her job - and then to HHC's Personnel Review Board. "Both OATH and the PRB agreed that the law did not require her to report the incident," Palladino said.

The battle dragged on as management misrepresented the facts (claiming falsely that Jones was trained in family violence), tried to block her unemployment insurance, appealed the OATH decision and even tried to overrule the PRB.

As Jones scraped together funds for survival, her lack of income almost led to foreclosure on her home. Throughout, the union stood by her and fought for her job.

"We won at OATH, won at PRB, won at the state Unemployment Board, and still HHC ignored us," Druyan said. Finally he went to State Supreme Court, which ordered Gouverneur to put Jones back to work with back pay and the other benefits she had been deprived of.

"This member went through hell," said Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez. "We put a whole team to work on it to make things right."

"The union didn't let the executive director get away with it," said Palladino.

"The truth prevailed," said Clerical Division Director Renee Gainer.

"This is great," said Jones, whose parents were members of Locals 420 and 1549. This was a nail biter, but I got great support from the union - starting with my steward."