Reference no: EM133305244

Assignment: "Doan v. City of New Halidart Carl Doan Background

Carl Doan is a 37-year-old employee of the City of New Halidart. He began working for the city as a dispatcher 16 years ago, after completing a community college diploma in business studies. Nine years ago, Doan was promoted to dispatcher-scheduler specialist. The main components of his job involve scheduling transit buses and dispatching buses and access-a-bus vehicles. Note that Doan and the other dispatcher-schedulers are not members of a trade union.

Doan, who currently earns $45,900 a year, is a single father with two children: 14-year-old Horace; and 12-year-old Boris, who is autistic and requires considerable child-care assistance.

Over the past five years, the city has moved to a more automated system of transit dispatching and scheduling. While Doan frequently works on his own, it is important that he communicate with other dispatcher-schedulers concerning transit services. Doan and the other dispatcher-schedulers report to Brian Campbell, who is the supervisor of Transit Services. The city is highly committed to providing quality public services and has invested heavily in both employee training and automating its operations. It has a good public image, and its slogan-Quality Service Delivery By Quality People-is heavily promoted in the New Halidart area. As part of an information sharing program, Campbell meets with groups of employees on a regular basis. For example, every Tuesday morning is the meeting with the dispatcher-scheduler group. The meetings are fairly informal: Campbell will share relevant business information with employees and address any questions or concerns that employees may have. Typical meetings last about 10-15 minutes.

Employee Handbook Provisions

Under Section 11.2 of the City of New Halidart Employee Handbook, the city retains all rights with regard to "the maintenance of discipline at the workplace, including the right to demote or discharge for just cause."

All employees receive a copy of the handbook when they commence employment at the City of New Halidart; every two years, each employee receives an updated version of the handbook. Carl Doan acknowledged receiving the most recent copy last January.

Doan's Previous Record

A review of Doan's file indicates that he has received two citations within the past five years. The disciplinary actions are as follows:

28 months ago: Doan received a written warning for being late for work. He had slept in and was 25 minutes late for his scheduled shift.

16 months ago: Doan was given a five-day suspension (without pay) for inappropriate behaviour at work. He was one of five employees who had made Brian Campbell a special chocolate brownie dessert to celebrate Campbell's birthday. However, as a joke, the group decided to put a laxative in the brownie. Campbell ate the brownie, became ill, and had to miss the following workday. While the employees argued that they were just playing a practical joke, the company viewed the matter as very serious. After reviewing all of the evidence, the employer suspended each of the five employees for five days. In the incident letter placed in each employee's file related to this suspension, the city indicated that the behaviour was clearly unacceptable and that any repeat infractions could result in discharge.

Doan's co-workers generally agree that Doan is a very pleasant guy with a sense of humour. As his close friend Pat Carson said, "Carl is a good person to work with. He does his job well and is very dependable but doesn't take things too seriously."

At the city, the performance appraisal form for the dispatcher-schedulers is very basic. It is determined by averaging the scores of four items (job knowledge, ability to work with others, dependability/accuracy, and handling unexpected vehicle maintenance and operator absences). The appraisal form allows the assessor to give a score anywhere between 1 and 5 (with 1 indicating unsatisfactory performance and 5 indicating outstanding performance) for each of the four items. Each employee has a personal performance appraisal interview with their supervisor and signs a form acknowledging that the interview took place (but not that the employee necessarily agrees with the assessment). On his last evaluation, Doan received the following scores:

Question:

1. Make arguments for both the employer and employee. Does the employer (City of New Halidart) have just cause to terminate Carl Doan?

2. How would you recommend communicating information about the termination with the employees who had observed this incident, and about respectful work practices expected in the future?"