Thomas J. Jordan, LLC

12/20/2024

Friends:
Good news on rulings in to two (2) grievance-arbitration cases. A link to both cases will be available on my law firm's web page shortly. The first case involved a downstate firefighter who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder witnessing some horrific events and almost losing his life in a structural fire. He applied for NYS General Municipal Law ("GML") Section 207-a benefits and the Employer denied him those benefits for what he believed were specious reasons. My law firm took the case to arbitration and, the arbitrator found fully in the firefighter's favor. Most importantly, the arbitrator did a "de novo" review of the facts of the case, so he was not bound by the much "narrower" review of whether the Employer's denial was supported by substantial evidence. This is an important ruling for all NYS firefighters and I will be seeking to confirm the arbitrator's award in NYS Supreme Court to give it more teeth.

The second case involves a corrections' officer who was seriously injured in a training accident and whose Employer was attempting to force her back to light duty work even though her treating physicians and psychologists stated she was incapable of such duty. The Employer threatened to cut off her statutorily guaranteed benefits. We took this to arbitration. The arbitrator rejected the Employer's 'professed' but not in writing assurances that the employee's severe limitations could be accommodated. The arbitrator implied that the Employer was using the light duty more to harass the injured employee than a legitimate business purpose of having her perform light duty work. Again, a link to the full case will be on my law firm website.

10/13/2022

I just wanted to share that we won the grievance-arbitration concerning the Cohoes Firefighters’ Union representatives leave time to attend arbitration hearings. In violation of the Firefighters’ Union contract, the City of Cohoes denied leave to a Union witness attending an arbitration hearing. The City claimed the leave only applied to Union officers.
Arbitrator Taylor disagreed pointing to the dictionary definition of “representative” and the City’s practice of liberally granting Union leave to members who were not officers for a variety of functions. Although he did not grant OT pay to the officer who should have been called in (which even the Chief admitted), this was a nice win for the Cohoes Firefighters’ Union. Congratulations! (The full text of the arbitration award will be posted on my law firm website next week).

06/15/2022

Gentlemen/Ladies:

Attached please find the Appellate Division (4th Dept.) (Rochester, NY) decision, Newman v. City of Tonawanda. Firefighter Newman applied for General Municipal Law Section 207-a benefits after re-aggravating a serious on-the-job injury to her shoulder. The Fire Chief denied her benefits. He claimed she was capable of working full firefighting duty with restrictions on a reduced 8 hour per day schedule. The major problem with the Chief’s decision was that City firefighters during the relevant time period work either 10-14 hour schedules or 24 hour schedules.

The lower court bought the City’s argument claiming even though it might disagree with the Fire Chief’s decision, it could not substitute its opinion for the Chief’s because his decision was not “arbitrary or capricious”. This is the very difficult hurdle one faces when no contractual 207-a procedure is in place.

Fortunately, the Appellate Court saw through the City’s ‘sham’ and found the Chief (and City) were being arbitrary. The Court pointed out that the City firefighters (except those on light duty) had never worked 8 hour shifts and the ‘regular duties’ of a City firefighter required them to work the longer shifts, identified above.

This decision is very important to NYS firefighters across New York State because it is the first one to categorically find that ‘reduced hours’, even if the person can do full firefighting duties for several hours, will not disqualify the disabled firefighter from qualifying for 207-a benefits. Congratulations to Firefighter Newman and the Tonawanda Firefighters!

You may read the full decision on my website at:
http://thomasjordanlaw.com/

Tom Jordan

07/21/2021

I wanted to share a summary of two (2) recent decisions won by my law firm. The first one involved a former union official who sued the present union officials after he lost the election. After a lengthy and contentious hearing at NYS PERB, his duty of fair representation claims were dismissed in their entirety and should have been. Congratulations to the CDTA bus drivers’ union and the hardworking union officials who serve as members.
The second case involves the wives of retired Watervliet Firefighters. The City of Watervliet lost a lawsuit in NYS Supreme Court to these retirees concerning reimbursement of Medicare Part B premiums. They are now reimbursing those retirees. But in an unpresented move, the City refused to reimburse the retirees’ Medicare Part B premiums paid by their spouses even though some of these retirees had the City’s family plan health insurance. This also violated a longstanding past practice. I've handled many of these lawsuits before but this is the first time that a City had refused to adhere to the longstanding practice once we won the lawsuit for the retirees.
The City’s motion to dismiss the spouses’ lawsuit was denied. I will be making a motion for summary judgment shortly to get the spouses Medicare Part B costs reimbursed plus applicable statutory interest for retroactive amounts. Both decisions will be posted on my law firm website by next week should you want to read the entire decisions.

Attorney At Law

10/21/2019

As I indicated in my prior post, I am now posting the link to the Decision on Albany Firefighter with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and his successful claim for 207-a benefits.

Copy the link below and paste into a new web browser in order to view.**

fil:///C:/Users/TJord/AppData/Local/Packages/microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe/LocalState/Files/S0/2662/Attachments/Scanned%20from%20a%20Xerox%20Multifunction%20Printer[9627][2305843009263744616].pdf

10/18/2019

I just received an arbitration award which found that an Albany Firefighter's diagnosed post traumatic stress disorder was job-related and disabled him from his regular duties as a City firefighter. He was awarded his full salary and benefits as is provided by General Municipal Law Section 207-a.
The City argued that his application for 207-a benefits
was not timely and that he was exaggerating and/or faking his symptoms. The arbitrator rejected both these arguments finding the firefighter submitted medical proof of his PTSD and disability and even the City's doctor agreed, his PTSD was job-related.
This appears to be one of the few, if not the only litigated case where a firefighter's claim of job-related PTSD
was rejected by the employer and then, after a full hearing, a decision was rendered in the firefighter's favor granting the firefighter 207-a benefits.
PTSD is one the illnesses that many firefighters suffer from to some degree but is underreported because of the stigma attached to it. Hopefully, this arbitration award gives
those suffering from this condition assurance that they are not alone, that PTSD is real, and entitled to be treated like any other job-related disabling injury or illness. I will be posting the full decision on this page and on my website in the next few days.

Tom

07/01/2019

Recent Decisions In Favor of New York State Firefighters

Albany Firefighters 2019 – Read Full Decision at link below.

fil:///C:/Users/TJord/Documents/UNIONS/A-C/ALBANY%20FIREFIGHTERS/Albany%20Decision,%20Judgment.pdf

Cohoes Firefighters 2019 – Read Full Decision at link below.

fil:///C:/Users/TJord/AppData/Local/Packages/microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe/LocalState/Files/S0/2662/Attachments/Decision%20and%20Award%20-%20City%20of%20Cohoes%20and%20Uniformed%20Firefighters%20of%20Cohoes%20Case%20No.%20A2018-123%20C[2305843009242735384].pdf

05/13/2019

Albany Firefighters Win Grievance Arbitration Concerning Personal Leave

The Albany Firefighters were successful in their challenge of a denial of personal leave for one of their members to attend a family court matter. The Fire Department Administration attempted to charge the firefighter's compensatory time. Even though the collective bargaining agreement language gave the Chief broad discretion to approve or deny personal leave, the Arbitrator found in this instance the denial was arbitrary and in violation of the agreement. This certainly will have union wide consequences for the Albany Firefighters' Union and the decision has some favorable language that other firefighters' unions can use to challenge arbitrary conduct by their employer. (The text of the full Opinion and Award will be available on my law firm website in the next couple of days or you can copy the link below to read the full text of the Opinion and Award) Congratulations to the Albany Firefighters!

fil:///C:/Users/TJord/AppData/Local/Packages/microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe/LocalState/Files/S0/4/Attachments/Scanned%20from%20a%20Xerox%20Multifunction%20Printer[2583].pdf

02/07/2019

Appellate Division Decision on Medicare Part B Reimbursement For Albany Firefighter Retirees

Great news for the City of Albany Firefighter Retirees who sued their City for their Medicare Part B reimbursement. The Appellate Court reversed the lower court’s denial of our Motion For Summary Judgment and granted it in our favor. This has been a hard fought battle for the last several years. Congratulations to my friends, the Albany Firefighter Retirees.

Tom Jordan

fil:///C:/Users/TJord/AppData/Local/Packages/microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe/LocalState/Files/S0/4/Scanned%20from%20a%20Xerox%20Multifunction%20Printer[1403][2305843009219291008].pdf

12/08/2017

November, 2017: Watervliet Firefighters win arbitration award restoring Medicare Part B premium reimbursement received from City when they become Medicare eligible.

Read full decision.

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