Community Disaster

[unforgiven]

A large storm has just passed through the state here and many workers were iced in and unable to report to work. Governor declared a state of emergency, state and local governments along w/law enforcement and emergency service providers requested that people stay home and off the roads, due to dangerous travel conditions. Thursday freezing rain which turned to massive amounts of ice was dumped across the state and continued through Friday afternoon, when snow was dumped on top the ice. I was unfortunately stuck at NCED and unable to return home and NCED was kind enough to provide rooms for all of the local students who were unable to return home. Due to this state of emergency and dangerous road conditions I was unable to return home and compelled to take advantage of the hospitality of NCED, for which I and many others were grateful. This was a rare experience, postal management showing common sense and compassion.

As I was unfortunately unable to return home, I was also unable to report to work on Friday morning. I called the attendance hotline and was asked to choose which kind of leave I wished to take. I was surprised to find a new option which I felt due to the state of emergency, declared by the governor, to be the appropriate choice, Community Disaster, so I hit that option. I was asked that if my leave request, apparently administrative leave was denied, would I prefer to take emergency annual leave or LWOP. I chose emergency annual leave, which is all I wanted to request in the first place. But hey, if they're going to put admin leave as my first choice, I won't argue. All fine and dandy, I reported to work, Saturday morning and was informed that our maintenance manager, had instructed her supervisors that anyone having chosen the community disaster option, was to be denied admin leave and given LWOP. Yep, you read that right, not emergency annual, which I had chosen as my option, rather she chose LWOP for everyone. So now, we're going to be forced to grieve this and be forced to give up 8 hours pay until the grievance is settled and we get a pay adjustment. I am disgusted and outraged. This kind of behavior on the part of management is reprehensible and inexcusable. There is no justification for LWOP being given when an employee has chosen emergency annual leave and has annual leave on the books. This wasn't a fishing day, it wasn't a day spent playing the slots, this was a weather driven emergency, beyond the control of the employees. If the conditions had been safe to drive in, NCED wouldn't have been offering free rooms to the locals, they'd have sent us home. I will resist the urge to name any names of the maintenance manager nor her boss the plant manager, but when I write my letters to the newspaper, senators, congressman, state governor, I will be sure to spell their names correctly. I do hope that my supervisor misunderstood his instructions and that I am able to come back and apologize for having misrepresented the actions of the maintenance manager, plant manager and his other cronies in the plant, as I have heard that they are pulling a similar stunt with the craft employees in operations.

I would be interested to know, where else this may be happening and if carriers are also being treated as badly, which I'm sure is the case. I'm not angry over the admin being denied, since that's not what I wanted, rather that was what their own little phone menu gave me as an option. I am angry that my choice of taking emergency annual in lieu of admin leave was ignored and I was maliciously given LWOP on the orders of the maintenance manager, who was most likely following the dictates of the plant manager.