I am the Chief Union Steward for my union's chapter and we filed a greivance based upon an employee who was let go supposedly under probatio...

Question

I am the Chief Union Steward for my union's chapter and we filed a greivance based upon an employee who was let go supposedly under probation. Our Administrative Regulations states, " If an employee resigns and returns within one year, the employer is to disregard a break in service and restore seniority, vacation and sick hours." They denied it but the language is clear and unambiguous that when a disregard of a break in service that means the employee is returned to a full time status. I am going to present a higher level of grievance, but I would like some exampled of some legal cases that could prove our position.

Answer

I'm assuming that this is a union matter involving an employee in the public school system. I've only handled union matters for post secondary employees. I am surprised that your union doesn't have a law firm which routinely handles matters such as this since the break in service clause that you mention is fairly standard in collective agreements. Let me know how this works out.