Police dispatchers accused of sickout: Eleven suspended after calling in ill
By O’Ryan Johnson Sunday, July 8, 2007
Eleven civilian police department dispatchers, about a third of the total force, banged out sick on Friday in what police described as an “unsanctioned work stoppage” that was carried out to protest a crackdown on flexible shifts.
The dispatchers are all members of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union Local 26, which did not sanction the episode. Many of them were at home when they were called or visited by officers assigned to the Internal Affairs Department, who informed them they had been suspended for five days without pay.
The move to suspend the dispatchers came after Police Commissioner Edward Davis banned a longstanding practice that allowed dispatchers to arrive an hour early and leave an hour early. Police said the policy was being abused, with some dispatchers arriving up to two hours early and leaving two hours before the end of their regular shifts.
Police department spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said at no time was there a shortage of dispatchers available to handle 911 calls. But she called it inexcusable for public safety employees to abandon their posts en masse.
“A select group of dispatchers executed an unsanctioned work stoppage, which is a violation of their contract,” she said. “Therefore the police department reacted with the appropriate disciplinary action.”
One of the suspended dispatchers said they have several grievances with the department, but the flexible-shift policy is not among them. The dispatcher, whose name is being withheld at the dispatcher’s request, said many of the dispatchers have children and five days’ loss in pay will be financially crippling.
The person said dispatchers are allowed to take sick days, and the department overstepped its bounds by assuming it was a work stoppage. The 11 suspended workers are seeking legal help to fight what they are calling an unfair suspension.
Posted by: rg1283
Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union Local 26?? for police dispatchers?? and I thought ACFMSE was a bad union for police related issues.
Posted by: MrJim911
Dispatchers don't have unions unless the local police unions let them in, so they really don't have much of a choice.
Posted by: tjdeputy
i'm sorry but you are wrong about dispatchers not having unions i'm a dispatcher and i'm a member of the iaff and there are a bunch of dispatchers i know that are in the iaff mass cop acfmse the teamtsters and a few others
Posted by: MrJim911
No, I'm right, as I implied there are no unions specifically designed for Dispatchers. Plenty of Dispatchers are IN unions all over the country, but none of them are "Dispatcher unions".
Posted by: mtc
State has SEIU and they suck. I thought Boston was in it too - at least Sue Chase made references to that.
Makes total sense though - suspend them for 5 days.... what'd that cost in OT?
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