This is one reason why a union motto has been work now grieve later.
I'm not sure why or how we have given the impression that the sup does not have the authority to fire. The rule wherever I have been has always been that if its not a safety issue then a driver refusing a supervisors instructions given then that driver can be fired on the spot. The supervisor has to have that authority in order to be able to operate. You can't be running a sort or riding with a driver and make service on the packages if you have the employee challenging and refusing every instruction.
The fact the order could be breaking a local parking ordinance could muddy the waters a little but lets be honest here. We plan to go out and double park every day. UPS plans on it and plans to pay X amount of dollars in parking fines every year. So breaking the law sounds ominous but its how we have to operate in order to get the job done.
In this case there was no life , death or injury issue here requiring immediate refusal. the correct response therefore was work now grieve later.
Tieguy, I asked the following of danny a few days ago and now I will ask the same of you :
Danny,let me ask you a question, if he had gone around the corner and taken his pants off, and then the sup saw him while driving by , could this fact be brought up at arbitration and even if it were, does it affect the case? If not, then what difference does it make if he did it two seconds after he was fired. You know more about this than I do, but at that moment, he wasn't just an employee off the clock, he was an ex employee leaving the ups workplace who might have very well been following the rule that when you leave the workplace you don't have the brown pants on. My opinion, he was John Q. Private Citizen at that point and as long as his actions as a private citizen didn't result in any citations, tickets or arrests, they have no bearing on the status of his retained employment with UPS or with this case which is simply about working as directed. Whaddya think?
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Danny answered me by saying that the supervisor didn't have the authority to fire, hence he wasn't fired at that moment and he as a thirty year employee would be expected to know this.
However, you hold the opposite assumption that the supervisor can indeed fire the employee. So for the sake of the same questions now directed at you, your assumption holds.
He was fired presumably while he was in the driver's seat. So he pulls over and parks and that's that , he is fired. Let's say at that point, he exits the vehicle by not using proper methods (i.e . he jumps to the ground), can he be written up for that? No, he was fired. Relationship between company and employee was severed .
So , he is own man on his own time. If he wants to walk around in his underwear, its his time and dime , not those of ups. By the way, I don't think this would violate any decency laws in san fran but that is besides the point.
If he walked away at a slow pace, could he be accused of not working with a sense of urgency? Nope he was fired before this act. If he walked straight into a bar and got drunk within five minutes. Could he be written up for drinking on duty? Nope, he was fired. If he walked into an army surplus store and bought and then wore a ww2 german army uniform with a swastica on it, could he be cited for that by ups? , nope, he was fired
When you're fired, it is what it is. You're fired. What say you?