The city did not have sufficient reason to fire public works employee Al Jeanetti in 2008, a state labor arbitration panel has ruled.
According to the ruling, which was issued Jan. 21, Derby must immediately rehire Jeanetti, cut him a check for $5,000 and contribute to his pension for the time he wasn’t working.
However, Jeanetti is not entitled to full back pay, according to the ruling.
The ruling also states Jeanetti should be suspended for 60 days. However, since Jeanetti was fired more than a year ago, the ruling seems to consider the suspension served.
The union had requested that Jeanetti receive no more than a written warning and that he be paid $60,000 for lost wages.
Background
The decision ends a dispute over the city’s transfer station, where Jeanetti was employed since 2006. He was a public works employee since March 1987.
According to the background information supplied in the ruling, Jeanetti ran into trouble with the city after the transfer station was inspected by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The DEP said they were missing quarterly reports from the transfer station, a place where garbage is dumped, packaged and trucked away.
Derby DPW Director Ron Culmo then asked Jeanetti for a daily log book, only to discover the records weren’t properly maintained. Monthly reports were nowhere to be found, according to the city.
This touched off an internal investigation of the activities at the transfer station.
Eventually, a subcommittee of the city’s Board of Aldermen released a report detailing the mismanagement of the transfer station. The report recommended disciplinary action be taken against several employees.
Public works then terminated Jeanetti and longtime worker Ron Luneau.
The Ruling
The ruling states while Jeanetti wasn’t doing a good job at the transfer station, firing him was too extreme.
The ruling states that the city was aware of problems at the transfer station, but “never really counseled, directed or disciplined the employees for their alleged mismanagement.”
“Even if the city were to claim that it was not in the past aware of these shortcomings of these employees, it in fact had supervisors at the transfer station and in the Public Works Department who must be held responsible for being previously unaware of” the many issues at the transfer station.
Reaction
A message seeking comment was left with James Castelot, a union representative who has spoken on behalf of the fired Derby workers. A message was also left for Luneau. Jeanetti’s published phone number no longer works.
Ken Hughes, president of the Derby Board of Aldermen, said the workers at the transfer station were trained by the DEP and had sole responsibility for running it.
“The city’s position, all along, was that these employees were certified by the state. I’m not certified, the mayor’s not certified, Ron Culmo’s not certified — the employees were certified. They were trusted to do their jobs,” Hughes said.
“The Board of Aldermen subcommittee stands behind its findings 100 percent,” Hughes said. “It was 100 percent accurate. Obviously this decision is not from the city. It is the decision of a state labor board.”
Meanwhile, the transfer station remains closed after a state labor board said Derby was wrong to bring in Annex Associates, a private company, to operate the facility.
Derby residents are now using a transfer station in Shelton.
This story will be updated if more information becomes available.
