Imagine being late to work more than 100 time because you were eating a leisurely breakfast at home. Then imagine telling your boss, “Sorry, but you can’t fire me!”
Welcome to teacher union politics in New Jersey.
According to the Associated Press, an elementary school teacher who was allowed to keep his job despite being late for work 111 times in two years said Friday that breakfast is to blame for his tardiness.
“I have a bad habit of eating breakfast in the morning, and I lost track of time,” 15-year veteran teacher Arnold Anderson said.
In a decision filed Aug. 19, an arbitrator in New Jersey rejected an attempt by the Roosevelt Elementary School in New Brunswick to fire Anderson from his $90,000-a-year job, saying he was entitled to progressive discipline.
“I have to cut out eating breakfast at home,” he said Friday.
A message seeking comment was left Friday with the school superintendent’s office.
The arbitrator found that the district failed to provide Anderson with due process by not providing him with a formal notice of inefficiency or giving him 90 days to correct his failings before terminating his employment.
Republican Gov. Chris Christie referenced the case in a tweet on Friday. Christie wrote: “Think I’m too tough on the teachers union? This is what we’re dealing with in NJ.”
This is what is wrong with NJ and the country. It is because of the Unions that we are in such a mess. I lived in NJ for 37 years and was glad to get out and go down South, SC. Although I am retired I live in a state that is a work free state. If you want to belong to a union you can but the Unions do not have the control that they do up north.
When will we wake up and see the Unions for what they really are self seeking pariahs living off the backs of the worker. They are not for the worker but for themselves. When they came into fashion they were very necessary now they are a necessary evil.
Over hundred days late. If he was in private industry he would be notified, given a chance to change his ways or be fired.
Of course, if he I finally let go, he will go out with a fat pension paid by those hard workers the taxpayer.
due process has to be respected and it was obviously not followed in this case
If the teacher was late 111 times, cheating the children and parents in the school district of a “full” education, where was the school principal? He or she failed in his or her responsibility to supervise, Shouldn’t he or she also be held accountable and be removed from a position that he or she is obviously failing to properly fill? I am sure the principal is earning at least the $90,000 the teacher is being paid. What a waste of over $180,000 dollars. This kind of incompetence usually is just the tip of an iceberg.