WIN, DON’T LOSE, EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE APPEALS

Some estimates say that 50 percent of public safety employee arbitration appeals end up with the employee being returned to duty.  This is often with back pay and frequently, when discipline is still imposed, at much lower levels of employee sanctions.  Although not as well documented, the results in civil service and merit review boards isn’t much better.  Court decisions can give us valuable guidance.  We must evaluate what goes wrong when we lose a case.  We can learn from those appeal cases that are decided in the favor of the agency by arbitrators, civil service boards and trial courts.  This webinar will discuss:

• Three major guides that arbitrators, civil service and merit boards and courts usually consult when deciding public safety employee discipline appeals
• Lessons learned from these guides and case law briefs
• Strengthen your discipline decisions by forcing decision makers in your agency to adhere to guides that can better support the final adjudication
• Incorporate the language of the case law within your discipline documentation
• Practice quality control to ensure that all persons making discipline decisions are on the same team
• Reasonable tactics to use when your agency defends its discipline decisions during appeal