September 05, 2007
Lynn Buckley, Representative
Communications Workers of America
1030 St. Georges Avenue
Suite 304
Avenel , NJ , 07001
Re: Request for Arbitration
Diondre Logan, Clerk Typist
Reimbursement for Theft of Property
Dear Sister Buckley:
CWA Local 1081 submits this Step III Contractual Grievance to protest the fact that numerous desks assigned to members of our Union within the Military Park office have suffered non-functioning locks for some time now and that Clerk Typist ------- ------ of CWA Local 1081 assigned to the Military Park Citizen Service Center suffered the theft from her non-lockable desk drawer by a client of her purse and all of its contents. Division of Welfare Director Bruce Nigro's attached Step II Contractual Grievance denial response of August 8, 2007, as well as Department of Citizen Services Director Anibal Ramos' attached Step III Class Action Grievance denial response of August 28, 2007, is unacceptable to both our aggrieved member and her Union :
- There is no dispute as to where our aggrieved member left her purse, for she left it within the unlocked drawer of her agency-provided desk.
- While Mr. Nigro asserts, "Additionally, it appears that staff did not properly escort staff (sic) into or out of the office area which allowed the reported perpetrator accessed (sic) to the employees (sic) desk", the facts are that on Friday, July 27, 2007 the "reported perpetrator" client left the desk of his Family Service Worker as the latter consulted with his Family Service Supervisor about the client's case, quickly entered our aggrieved member's desk drawer that had a non-functioning lock, purloined her purse, swiftly exited the interviewing area and passed our aggrieved member's purse to a female accomplice who summarily exited the building which was caught on the building's video camera.
- Contrary to Mr. Nigro's contention that "Thus, it is difficult to discern overall responsibility and the facts surrounding the theft and whether or not a broken desk lock contributed to the theft", the factual scenario above recounted by our Union renders our version of the events, and the County's culpability, incontrovertible.
- While Mr. Nigro alleges "the survey of the office for non-functioning locks…is done routinely and we have made considerable repairs over the years", he goes on to concede that "However, since we have a newly assigned manager in the office where the theft occurred and to avoid any miscommunication that could have possibly occurred with the assignment of a new manager, we are surveying the office once again and will repair any broken locks".
- Mr. Nigro, therefore, fails to provide the date of the last survey of the office for damaged desk locks and admits that since the transfer of the "newly assigned manager to the office where the theft occurred" took place there has not been such a survey taken, this despite the fact that an AASFS assigned to that office informed our Union that she had made several requests for the desks' locks to be repaired well prior to the cited incident.
While it has been reported both culprits were apprehended by the police, our members handbag and its contents, including the cash proceeds from her cashed paycheck, were not recovered causing our affected member much time, expense and emotional discomfort having to replace the locks on her car and abode as well as replace her personal identification.
The resolution CWA Local 1081 seeks to the arbitration of this matter is for the County of Essex pay to replace all of Sister -------'s personal items lost when her purse was stolen from her worksite desk drawer which had a broken lock for some time of which her office management had oft made the administration aware to no avail.
The National CWA has until approximately October 12, 2007 to file for arbitration in this regard.
Sincerely,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081
C: ------- -------
Anibal Ramos
Bruce Nigro
Yvonne Davis
Marc Pilchman
Stephen Weissman, Esquire
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