THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 18, 1995 TAG: 9502180528
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANCIE LATOUR, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
After more than a year of delays, a former maintenance worker for the Chesapeake Redevelopment and Housing Authority on Friday got the chance to plead that he was unfairly laid off by the authority.
For four hours, an independent, three-member panel listened as Bobby Hawk and attorneys for Hawk and CRHA unfolded a complicated sequence that began when CRHA laid Hawk off June 30.
In a letter then to Hawk, CRHA officials said a loss of revenue had forced them to lay off Hawk and two other employees.
Three months later, Hawk was asked to come back to work by the authority's maintenance director and director of personnel. But two hours after that offer was extended, Hawk was told that there had been ``a mistake'' and that CRHA Executive Director Edmund Carrera had not approved the decision to bring him back.
In her closing argument, Hawk's attorney Katherine Nelson argued that her client had not been laid off because of financial cutbacks, and that other employees should have been put on the chopping block before him.
``The whole picture just doesn't quite make sense,'' Nelson said. ``We've got costs that are allegedly being cut, while we've got new positions being created; we've got some employees that are OK to lose by attrition, but some that are being laid off.''
Nelson also noted that several employees had been fired for misconduct in March 1994 for abusing sick leave and then rehired a short time later.
None of those employees was considered for the layoffs, Nelson said.
John E. Zydron, the attorney for CRHA, argued that the layoffs had been determined strictly on the basis of seniority, and that a computer-generated list of hiring dates had shown Hawk along with the two other employees as those most recently hired.
None of the employees under past or present scrutiny for misconduct came up on that printout, Zydron said, so there was no reason they should be targeted for a layoff.
Hawk had worked for the authority for 3 1/2 years before being injured on the job in October 1993. He was put on sick leave, and when he tried to come back to work in November with physical restrictions was told that there were no light-duty jobs.
The authority fired him Dec. 3, saying that his position had to be filled immediately. Hawk was rehired Dec. 27, 1993, but lost his seniority. Hawk was unsuccessful in contesting that rehiring status in circuit court.
Hawk was not challenging those actions in Friday's hearing. He was instead trying to get reinstated with seniority back to that second hiring date.
Zydron said Hawk's layoff was part of ongoing personnel changes and budget-cutting at CRHA due to reduced funding by the federal agency that subsidizes many of its projects: the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
No one has been hired to fill Hawk's position, Zydron said.
``Mr. Carrera (has) told the panel that if the position becomes available Mr. Hawk would be put on the list, as are other employees, on the same status, for rehire,'' Zydron said.
Robert B. Rigney, the panel chairman, said the group would inform both parties when it had received and considered all the evidence. Within 10 days of that notice, the panel will issue its verdict.
Hawk and his wife Louise filed out, dismayed that the matter was still not settled.
``We've waited a year and more on this,'' Louise Hawk said. ``I guess we can wait another couple of weeks.'' by CNB