County appeals employee arbitration award
The county has filed a lawsuit in Common Pleas Court seeking to vacate an April arbitration award that gave a union employee a job the county claims he is not qualified for.
The suit, which was filed last month, argues that the award gave employee Jeffrey Sweeney a maintenance repairman job that requires a universal certification to handle refrigerants, which he doesn’t have.
He was awarded the job after the county hired a different employee who had the certification. Both employees are members of Service Employees International Union, Local 668, according to the suit.
That award is the second one Sweeney received after the union filed a grievance on his behalf against the county.
While Sweeney was working as a maintenance repairman at the prison, a job he had since he was hired in July 2009, he was suspended in February 2019 for alleged performance and behavior issues, including taking excessive breaks and bringing in contraband, including tobacco and needles, according to the suit.
An arbitration hearing was held for two grievances filed by the union. In February 2021, arbitrator Sanford Kelson, of Conneaut Lake, denied the grievance for taking longer than allowed breaks and upheld the grievance for violating the prison contraband policy, according to the suit.
The county terminated Sweeney following the third time he allegedly brought contraband, consisting of a cellphone and herbal chew into the prison, according to the suit.
In May 2021, the county settled a discrimination suit that Sweeney filed in federal court and a grievance the union filed over the termination by returning Sweeney to his job and paying him $25,000, according to the suit.
The county assigned him to work as a custodial worker at other locations to stop him from bringing contraband into the prison, according to the suit.
In May 2023, the county posted a job vacancy for a maintenance repairman in the noncustodial division of the bargaining unit. Job requirements included having a universal certificate for handling and reclaiming refrigerants, according to the suit.
An employee, who had been working for the county since July 2012, had the refrigerant certification and was working as a carpenter in the noncustodial division of the bargaining unit, bid for and was hired for the job. That employee was selected instead of Sweeney, who also bid on the job.
In June 2023, the union filed a grievance on Sweeney’s behalf.
The county said Sweeney provided a copy of his ESCO Institute refrigerant certification, but it was for working with refrigerant and air conditioning equipment in motor vehicles, and not the air conditioning system used in county buildings that required the universal certification, according to the suit.
Sweeney also gave the county a card dated Oct. 15, 1993, issued by the Air Conditioning Contractors of America and Ferris State University saying he had universal certification. The ESCO Institute listed his universal certification status as incomplete, according to the suit.
Information provided by Sweeney indicated he obtained universal certification in 1993 or 1998, but the county could not confirm through ESCO that he had a current certification, and the phone number on the card for Ferris State University was not in service, according to the suit.
Illinois-based ESCO establishes heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigerant industry standards, provides validation tools and offers training, according to its website.
Following an arbitration hearing, arbitrator David Piper, of Indiana, awarded the job to Sweeney on April 3.
Sweeney, who was contacted Friday, said the union is handling the suit. The union declined to comment.
