Bus driver using cell phone disciplined

An administrative law judge upheld a 20-day unpaid suspension for a bus driver who was seen by a fellow employee talking on her cell phone while driving a "loaded" Route 22 bus in August. In 2010, Whistleblower wrote about Metro Transit's year-old turn-off-and-stow cell phone policy and ensuing union grievances. The suspended driver, Barbara Patterson, put forth several explanations for why in-bus cameras showed her appearing to talk with her hand up to her ear for almost five minutes: Gum chewing, shielding her face from a passenger in the "peanut seats" and adjusting her hair, cap or earring. The arbitrator found that those and other variations in Patterson's account "call into question grievant's credibility." To read this arbitration decision between Metro Transit and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, click here. To read other arbitration decisions, click here.