Posted on 08/19/2004 1:12:36 PM PDT by Cagey
By LORRI HELFAND, Times Staff WriterFor missing work to evacuate his mother, city employee James Gesicki lost his job.
LARGO - When James Gesicki heard that Hurricane Charley was heading for Tampa Bay last week, he had one thing in mind: getting his 81-year-old mother who lived in a mandatory evacuation zone to safety.
So last Thursday the 30-year Largo public works employee told two of his supervisors he planned to bring his mother, Catherine, to his Spring Hill home. Fine, they said. But show up for work Friday - the day the hurricane was expected to hit - or lose your job.
Gesicki, 61, and a year from retiring, chose to stay with his mother.
Monday, he was fired.
"I had to make a decision. There was only one decision to make and because of it, I lost my job," Gesicki said.
Largo, which also fired a wastewater treatment plant operator for the same reason this week, is the only major Tampa Bay area city so far to terminate anyone for refusing to work. St. Petersburg and Tampa are investigating cases of employee absenteeism that Friday, officials said.
Gesicki earned $35,000 a year as a Largo spray technician, clearing weeds and plants from city waterways. Allen Janosky, a wastewater treatment plant operator for the city for two years, earned $33,425.
Assistant City Manager Henry Schubert said public works employees like Gesicki must be on site to prepare and fuel equipment before disasters hit. And employees who were not at work during a storm might not be able to get there shortly after.
Both employees were considered primary responders, he said, who would have roles in an emergency. "When we call you in to work, if you refuse to come to work, we will terminate you," Schubert said.
Gesicki's termination will not affect his retirement benefits, but he said he will have to pay for his own health insurance.
All of Gesicki's performance reviews on file list him as meeting or exceeding expectations. He was disciplined in September 2001 for leaving chemicals on a boat.
Gesicki said that over the years, he showed up for work during several emergencies. But in this case, he felt he was pushed up against a wall.
"We are people too," he said. "We have family and we have homes."
Schubert said Gesicki could have taken his mother to a special needs shelter or a shelter reserved for the family of Largo employees at the Largo Cultural Center.
But Gesicki said he didn't feel comfortable leaving his mother by herself in a shelter, surrounded by strangers.
Janosky, the treatment plant operator, left a message with a clerical staffer last Thursday saying he was in a mandatory evacuation zone and was not coming to work, said his boss, Joe Carlini, director of environmental services. The city didn't hear from him Friday and he called in sick Saturday, Carlini said.
Stephen C. Sarnoff, president of the Communication Workers of America union's Local 3179, said the two employees should not be held to the same standard as police officers or firefighters.
"I don't think the citizens are demanding that these two be fired," Sarnoff said.
Officials from other Tampa Bay municipalities say they haven't taken the the strict line Largo has.
In Belleair Bluffs, one city public works employee had the identical request: He asked to stay home to care for his mother. The city accepted that excuse, Mayor Chris Arbutine said. "You have to take everything into consideration," Arbutine said.
In Clearwater, city officials said staffing levels are minimized before a storm, and they encountered no problems.
County Administrator Steve Spratt said he was unaware of any employees fired for not reporting. "We had a fairly flexible directive to our department directors," he said. "We wanted to be sensitive to those employees who had personal obligations at home, securing their families and homes."
In Dunedin, employees who didn't show up without clearing it with their supervisor were charged a vacation day, City Manager John Lawrence said.
St. Petersburg is looking into a few cases of absent employees. Human Relations director Gary Cornwell said he doesn't yet have an exact count, but described it as a handful of cases.
"We've asked them to document their excuses," he said. "Any action we take will depend on the circumstances."
Ken Perry, labor relations manager in Tampa's human resources department, said city officials are investigating two employees who didn't report to work Friday. If it turns out they didn't have legitimate reasons for not reporting for work, they will face consequences based in part on their work history, he said. Possibilities range from verbal reprimand to suspension and dismissal.
Gesicki said he doesn't plan to fight his termination. He said he doubts he can persuade officials to change their minds.
But his conscience is clear, he said. "Under the circumstances," he said, "I would do it again."
Times staff writers Aaron Sharockman, Megan Scott, Carrie Johnson, Michael Sandler and Janet Zink and Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Lorri Helfand can be reached at 727 445-4155 or at lorri@sptimes.com
Florida is a Right To Work state. When I was there, I was employed under the strict understanding that I could be let go for any reason; one worked at the discretion of the employer.
I see that hasn't changed much...
You'd swear the report came from Leningrad...
OMG --- A city employee is fired! Maybe this should be in Breaking News....
Huh?
That is just plain low. You take care of family first.
I worked in a hospital several years ago, not as a nurse. The management made it very, very, clear that if we didn't show up for work on a hurricane or snow day, we would be in trouble.
If you couldn't get in, they sent a vehicle for you. Certain jobs it goes with the territory.
But a 30 year employee one year from retirement? I have to question that.
He made an informed decision. He knew the risk and advantages to both sides of the decision. Now he gets to live with it. I see no problem from either side.
This one hits close to home.
We live in a town on the SW coast of Florida.
When my husband took his job s with the local city government, he had to sign a form that said "in the event of a storm, he would be at the emergency center for up to 72 hours."
So everytime there's a storm scare, he packs his bags, packs some food, takes a sleeping bag and heads off to his job.
Before he goes, he secures our home, and we've made all kinds of arrangements in the event we have to evacuate. We also have made arrangements for his mother (who was in fact evacuated this past Thursday).
It's part of the job, and the employees necessary for the emergency maintenance of city systems have been told, if you don't show up for the "emergency duty" you won't have a job when you do show up. Everybody from top management on down has duties and they show up for them.
To allow leeway for one employee would put the entire system in jeopardy, IMHO. It's a condition of the job and you go into it with eyes wide open when you accept employment in that specific job.
I guess it sounds lousy, but they did warn him. If making the right decision was always easy and never had repercussions, why even the Dims might start doing it. The man made an informed decision and I commend him for it. On the other side, if they warned him, then didn't follow through, they would have no way to control their workforce...
The guy made a choice knowing what could happen. Maybe he should have took his mother home like he said he was going to do and he would still have his job.
The man is 61 years old, he had to know not returning to work could cost him his job.
Sorry, life sucks sometimes.
I have to question it too. I think there may be more to the story than is written here. He was warned and made his choice, but I think most managers would have told him if he felt he needed to be with his aged mother, go for it and they would have covered for him.
The employer must allow up to 8 weeks of unpaid vacation leave to accomodate the employee to take care of their family.
sorry, he was told that he had to be at work, he CHOOSE not to knowing full well of the consequences. I feel bad that the guy was fired, but he put himself in the position.
After 30 years he must have known the rules.
FMLA is not that simple. There is paperwork that must be filled out etc. You can't just call in one day and say my Mom, Dad etc is sick, I'll be out for awhile. Although this guy might not strike some as important, I'd say ensuring that the waste water system is up and running after an emergency is a pretty important job.
I think the free traders would tell you the job isn't his, he has not right to it, and he should shut up and find another one and stop whining.
They have the legal right to fire him, but do they have the moral right?
I dont' think they specified his mother as ailing, just old.
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