Jan 29, 2021 3 min read

Following multiple arbitration hearings last year, a former Donegal Township employee was awarded a “make-whole remedy” by an arbitrator earlier this month.

Arbitrator Ronald Talarico’s findings, signed Jan. 6, favored Heather Wood, who was hired as an assistant secretary/treasurer for the township in January 2019 and laid off eight months later. Talarico awarded reinstatement to the position, back pay, restoration of benefits and seniority, and rescission of any discipline, including restoration of any benefits lost prior to termination, according to court records.

According to court records, Wood was sent home from work by township supervisor Edward Shingle Jr. after an argument in March 2019.

In April, after meeting her 90-day probation period with the collective bargaining agreement, Wood filed a grievance that one of the supervisors, Kathleen Croft, was performing her duties and that she was forced to work from home without cause, according to court records.

In May, Shingle emailed Wood informing her that she was on paid leave and that she would need to turn in all township materials in her possession, according to court records. Later that month the union, Operating Engineers Local No. 66, filed a grievance that the township failed to enroll Wood in any of the benefits to which she was entitled.

In August, the supervisors voted to eliminate Wood’s position, according to the arbitration documents.

During arbitration, the township argued that Wood wasn’t a union member, as her time was split between secretary duties – which falls under the bargaining unit – and treasurer, which does not. The union argued that Wood was a member who wasn’t given “just cause to discipline or termination.” The union also alleged that Croft took Wood’s “work computer, invaded her personal space, sat immediately behind her, and threw paper balls into her hair.”

Talarico wrote in his opinion that Wood was covered under the bargaining unit for multiple reasons, including the township deducting union dues from her paycheck. He also agreed in his findings that the township didn’t have just cause for firing her.

“The township did not provide any specifics that would demonstrate misconduct on the part of the part of grievant,” he wrote in his findings. “In fact, the township conceded that it failed to investigate the March 21 incident prior to suspending grievant, and the township never made any findings of actual misconduct by her.”

Talarico also said that if what the union alleged was true regarding how Wood was treated by supervisors, “that behavior must cease immediately.”