Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Labor & Employment Law Blogs -> New York Public Personnel Law

Labor & Employment Law

: New York Public Personnel Law

First comply with the superior?s directive; then file a grievance to object

First comply with the superior?s directive; then file a grievance to object
Health & Hospital Corp v Tanvir, OATH Index #797/10

OATH Administrative Law Judge Alessandra Zorgniotti recommended termination of Shahid Tanvir, a laboratory associate employed by the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation.

Tanvir had been served with disciplinary charges alleging that he refused a reassignment from a pathology laboratory to a chemistry laboratory.

Judge Zorgniotti observed that typically a civil servant must obey an order when given and subsequently challenge it through formal grievance procedures if there are objections.

ALJ Zorgniotti rejected the employee's claim that the order was clearly beyond the power of management or that compliance would threaten patient health and safety.

The judge found the order to train and work in a chemistry lab was within management's prerogative to determine the methods, means, and personnel by which its operations are conducted. The employee's belief that the new assignment posed a risk to patients was speculative since the employee refused to accept offered training

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on February 03, 2010 (boomark / email).