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OFFICE OF THE UMPIRE No. D-28 May 2, 1946
Termination As A Voluntary Quit Under Paragraph 64(c); Necessity For Clear Proof Of Failure Of Notification
GRIEVANCE: Oldsmobile-Kansas City—Case D-6 "Protest Management action in writing me off as voluntary quit, as I had a sick pass when I left the plant. Request I be put back to work with pay for all time lost."
Umpire’s Decision: Employee N.’s full seniority and standing as an employe shall be restored. No back pay is awarded. (Entire Decision should be read)
In the Matter of: United Automobile Workers of America—C.I.O.—Local 93 and General Motors Corporation—Oldsmobile-Kansas City—Case D-6
On May 1st, 1945, Employee N., who was working as a Shaper in the Tool Room on the night shift, informed his Foreman that he had a headache and wished to go home. The Foreman asked him to get some material from the Steel Room and stated that in the meantime he would secure a pass for him. The Foreman thereupon proceeded to the hospital and secured a pass for N. reading "Sick—requested to go home". The Foreman gave this pass to Employee N. who thereupon left the plant. When N. allowed the next three days to pass without reporting to the plant, Management terminated him as a voluntary quit. In this grievance N. claims that this action of Management was unjustified and asks to be reinstated with back pay. The evidence leaves some doubt as to whether, when N. was leaving the plant, he told the Foreman that he would be back at work the following night, or whether, as N. says, he told him that he would return "as soon as he was able". The Umpire resolves this doubt in favor of the complainant. The breaking of an employee’s seniority as a voluntary quit is a serious step equivalent in some of its effects upon the employee to a discharge. Though the National Agreement makes clear provision for such action in the case of employees who are absent for three successive days without properly notifying the Management, the Umpire believes that the absence of such notification should be clearly established. In the present instance there is evidence that N. had informed his Foreman that he was sick and would return when he was able to do so. A hospital pass was on record in Management’s files indicating that he had gone home because of illness. Employee N. states that he believed that he had fulfilled all the requirements and did not know that he was expected to call in if he was not coming back to work during the following days. On this state of the evidence, the Umpire cannot conclude that the proof of a failure of notification is sufficiently clear to support Management’s action in breaking N.’s seniority and terminating him as a voluntary quit. Because of his failure to call in to the Plant and make sure that Management knew that he was not returning because of illness, N. must share some of the responsibility for his predicament. Back pay for the few remaining days during which his seniority might have entitled him to remain in the Plant, therefore, is not awarded.
Decision: Employe N.’s full seniority and standing as an employe shall be restored. No back pay is awarded. Signed, Ralph T. Seward UMPIRE May 2, 1946. |