Legal Question in Employment Law in New York

I am a union school bus driver in New York. I've worked for 16 years with an unblemished record. In the last month, I am having a problem with a parent of 2 children on the bus. I have never spoken to this person nor know of any problem between us. About a month ago, I was reported by this person for picking up another child who came out of her house late and was not able to get to the bus stop at the pick up time. She was running toward the bus, waving her hands with a frightened look. It was a safe spot so I stopped and picked her up near her house and NOT at the assigned bus stop. I was reported to the Board of Ed and had a hearing. Although the charges did not stick, it was an un-nerving experience. Two weeks ago in our 2nd blizzard of the year, I picked up another bus drivers children because he was running late. I saw the parents and children standing in the street in horrible weather and stopped and picked them up. The board of Ed does not want drivers picking up at random locations or doing special stops for people. Apparently this parent has informed his kids to tell him if the bus driver should do anything out of the ordinary. The parent again called the Board of Ed and now I have a live feed, on all the time camera mounted in the bus and pointed at me. But both of these stops were done with the purpose of getting the children to school on time and safely under rare conditions. He is not sending in complaints because I am late, or driving dangerous, or am disrespectful to the children. It's all about if I pick up another child that is not at the assigned stop. I can't see what would outrage a parent about that to write and call complaints in.

I spoke to the previous driver who had this run and he said he had a terrible experience with this same parent. Again this person called our company up many times with complaints about the driver and bus. All were nonsense. One complaint had that the bus had an odor. After trying to work this out with the parent, the company told the driver to let the parent walk on the bus and smell it. (No children were on at the time) This driver then told me that the driver before him also had problems with the same parent and was also called into hearings on bogus charges. This now spans a 4 year period with 3 drivers.

I will speak to both drivers tonight and ask them if they will write me a letter stating the experiences they had. I will also write one up too and then send it my union. They should be aware of this parent targeting thier hard working, caring, and safe drivers for sport. I will ask them if they can respond to this parent about the harrassment he is giving us. I don't deserve it nor did the past 2 drivers. Nor should the driver who eventually gets this run after me. I will also cc. the parent, my company, Board of Ed, the school which his children attend.

The problem is that I don't believe my union will allow thier legal department to get involved with this. Nor will they take a stance for defending me. I believe they will tell me to deal with the camera and pick off this run at the next chance. Also pushing the problem onto the next driver. No one should have to deal with unwarranted complaints about a person who takes pride, enjoys, and needs this job.

So I ask your advice on what other options I have. I appreciate any idea you can give. It horrible having someone you don't know, trying to sabatoge your career, for no explicable reason except for a sick and bored mind.

Thanks


Asked on 2/02/11, 8:39 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Haber Law Offices of Michael S. Haber

Sometimes it's difficult to figure out a person's motivation, especially when his or her conduct seems to be downright mean. That is the case with this parent who seems to want to gratuitously make trouble for you, despite the fact that it seems that you are doing your job well and in a thoughtful manner. As you've probably already realized, trying to speak reasonably and forthrightly with that parent would almost certainly be an exercise in futility and, moreover, might even spark a new complaint.

If I am correctly understanding your comments, the one hearing that was held resulted in a dismissal of the underlying complaint. But, presumably one of the applicable work rules is that the company can install a live camera focused on the driver when there are multiple complaints.

I obviously do not know the precise provisions of your collective bargaining agreement and thus cannot say whether that live feed is something that may be grieved through your union. You might want to pose that question to your union representative. Nor do I know the frequency with which such cameras are placed on buses, so I do not know whether this is rare, commonplace, or somewhere in between.

If there is nothing that you can grieve, you might ask your union representative to write to management and to make note of the difficulties you, and previous drivers on that route, have experienced, so that there will be a record that suggests that that particular parent has behaved unreasonably and unfairly. That may help protect you against the almost-inevitable future complaints from that parent.

Good luck to you.

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Answered on 2/03/11, 9:31 am


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