HEY, IT’S ABOUT ‘TIME’!

Axed for 53late days

A veteran city worker has lost his job after showing up to work late — 53 times in a year and a half. And Corey Bryant, a clerical associate at the Human Resources Administration since 2003, had a less- than-original excuse for many of the days that he missed his 10 a.m. start time between May 2014 and October 2015 — slow subway service. Officials said Bryant blamed the MTA for 22 of his late starts. In total, he missed 907 minutes of work during that 18month span. Administrative Law Judge Noel Garcia didn’t buy that excuse, noting that Bryant’s supervisors had warned him several times about being late. The judge pointed out that Bryant never provided proof of subway delays that coincided with his late starts. “Transit delays are part of the daily commute and should be planned for,” Garcia ruled. The judge said that when he asked the worker why he simply didn’t leave his home earlier to get to the office on time, Bryant “sarcastically answered, ‘It’s called sleep,’ demonstrating a general defiance of the timeliness rules.” Bryant explained that he asked his bosses to give him a later start time because he had a bum knee. The judge responded that the city had already moved his start time from 9:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and noted that Bryant still hadn’t proved he had any lingering disability in his knee.

Several witnesses testified that Bryant was belligerent at work, often yelling at colleagues and threatening them.

Although the judge said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove he threatened bodily harm, Garcia accepted the testimony of the office manager — referred to as Ms. Stephens-Santaromita in the ruling — who said Bryant was over-the-top rude to her when she asked him to get some work done.

When Stephens-Santaromita put a case file on Bryant’s desk and told him it needed to be finished immediately, Bryant stood up, swung the papers and angrily yelled, “What is this?” according to the trial record.

Bryant told the judge he resisted the assignment because Stephens-Santaromita was not his immediate supervisor and he wasn’t supposed to be delegated work from two different people because it caused office “mayhem.”

The judge countered, “The evidence establishes that the respondent yelled very loud. I also find that the respondent’s actions were insolent and discourteous.”

Bryant appealed his firing to the Civil Service Commission, which on Nov. 17 refused to overturn the judge’s decision.

His lawyer, Michael Coviello, said he never comments on his cases.