Same work, new boss, new problems
Joseph Ardilla has been working as a senior clerk at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Long Beach, CA for 15 years. He started out as a temp and got hired permanent after 6 months. He gradually moved up in his job. His supervisors gave him good evaluations and he had good feedback from clients. Five years ago he started a family. He and his wife had twins. His wife also worked and they trouble scheduling daycare so he requested and obtained approval to come to work at 9AM instead of 8AM. He stayed late to get in his 40 weekly hours.
Three months ago his supervisor retired and he got a new supervisor. The new supervisor did not want to provide the flexibility for Joseph to come in late. Joseph has had difficulty getting into work at 8AM and he has gotten to work 15 minutes late five times in the last month. His supervisor has now issued him a warning letter stating that further discipline could lead to dismissal.
Here is his union contract.
What can Joseph do?
I’d like to know what Joseph’s co-workers feel about the new boss. Do they think the boss is being unreasonable. Is the boss giving them a hard time or only Joseph.
Sometimes contracts aren’t very strong on this kind of issue but some creative mobilizing like having everyone show up 1 minute late could fix the problem.