NRP slammed by arbitrator
Union calls search of employee’s email ‘borderline unlawful’
An arbitrator has thrown the book at Niagara Regional Police.
The police service was ordered to pay its own employee, Breean Rathonyi, a civilian with the human resources unit, $5,000 in damages after an “unreasonable” review of almost 20,000 of her emails — and a misconduct investigation that came to nothing.
Niagara Region Police Association filed a grievance against the NRP’s executive for a collective agreement breach after a senior manager came to believe someone was “leaking” confidential HR information to the association.
“They ended up in a witch hunt with this young lady because we asked questions about things they didn’t like,” said Cliff Priest, president of the association, which is the union representing rank-and-file officers and civilian staff.
“They decided that somebody was doing something wrong, and they decided to target her. They decided to try to make an example of her, and they found absolutely nothing.
“There is now a Grand Canyon dividing us when it comes to trust with certain members of the executive.
“This young lady is a hardworking, committed member of the police service. It really hurt her.”
The arbitrator, Morton Mitchnick, agreed. He also awarded the association $10,000 in damages for violations of the collective agreement and the implication that association acted inappropriately. Bob Gale, chairman of the police board, acknowledged the arbitrator’s decision and award.
“The board respects and accepts the award and has complied with it, and will continue to comply with it in letter and in spirit,” he said.
The arbitrator found the police service breached the collective agreement after the NRP’s business manager, Lisa DiDonato-DeChellis, with the support of senior management, searched 11,252 emails sent, and 7,765 emails received, by Rathonyi. Chief Jeff McGuire ultimately approved the search.
“We pursued this all the way because of the damage and harm it caused to Ms. Rathonyi, her mother, who is on our board of directors, our reputation and the harm it did beyond Ms. Rathonyi,” Priest said.
“Because of this unnecessary, unjustified and, in my view, borderline unlawful investigation, they decided to shutdown the whole of our internal posting process. They did a unilateral halt on civilian job postings. It hurt a lot of people.”
McGuire said he had spent considerable time reviewing the arbitrator’s decision with his senior staff, and that they have taken steps to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again.
“I concede that we could have handled this better from the beginning, and, in saying that, I include decisions that I myself made along the way,” McGuire said.
“I can assure you that the intent was not to cause harm to our employee, however, I recognize that some of the choices made by myself and my senior staff did in fact do that. The service respects the award given and has complied with all directions given by the arbitrator.”
Mitchnick found the reasons given by the NRP for the search were dubious at best — and the vast majority of what DeDonato-DeChellis found was “irrelevant to the issue of confidentiality.”
“Little was provided in the way of evidence to support this beyond suspicions and feelings that the NRPA seemed to be one step ahead, at times, when dealing with civilian job reductions and the bumping process,” Mitchnick said.
The police IT unit cloned Rathonyi’s emails and gave them to DiDonato-DeChellis electronically.
She waded through them over a weekend by using name searches of association members and Rathonyi’s husband, who had applied for a job at the NRP.
The NRP also launched an internal investigation, which was led by Insp. Mike Woods of the professional standards unit, into the source of the “leaks.”
Woods’ report makes clear that information that concerned DiDonato-DeChellis could have been obtained by the association in the course of daily interactions with the HR department. The information, in fact, wasn’t confidential, even if Rathonyi had leaked it, which she didn’t.
As part of his decision, Mitchnick ordered the NRP “not to rely on the suspicions, allegations or any other information related to this matter for any purpose.”
He also ordered that any materials the service retained from the investigation have a copy of the decision attached to them.
Rathonyi received her financial award because of the “infringement of her right under the collective agreement to be free of discrimination on the basis of association membership or connections and for pain, suffering and humiliation based on the unreasonable review of emails and misconduct investigation.”
Mitchnick also ordered the decision be circulated among all the members of the executive staff of the service.
“I am advised by the counsel … that prior to the actual commencement of this proceedings, DiDonato-DeChellis acknowledged that she owes an apology to Rathonyi and the association for her unreasonable and discriminatory actions, and I direct that such apology be made in writing, in the terms discussed.”