The Cupertino Courier

Custodians' union sues De Anza College board

Suit seeks back pay for employees accused in 'theft of time' by district

By Katherine Petersen

The California School Employees' Association confronted the five-member Foothill-De Anza Community College District board of trustees and the district's chancellor and vice chancellor with a lawsuit at the Oct. 6 meeting.

The suit, filed Sept. 12 in Santa Clara County Superior Court, demands back pay, reinstatement and benefits for 12 custodians who were fired after being put on administrative leave in January.

While the district received notice of the suit before the Oct. 6 meeting, the CSEA wanted to make sure each trustee saw the papers, said Charles Lamb, the CSEA's senior labor relations representative.

In addition to the CSEA's suit, 18 claims for $1 million each were filed against the district by the custodians for damages, said Carl Lindstrom, a San Jose attorney who represents nine of the custodians.

Twenty-six custodians and two employees who did custodial work during the summer were put on administrative leave in January. The employees were charged with a variety of offenses, including coming in late, leaving early, taking long breaks, drinking on the job and sleeping on the job, said Leo Contreras, president of chapter 96 of the California School Employees' Association.

"They called it theft of time," he said, adding that custodians had initiated complaints against their manager for not having enough supplies and being short-staffed. "The chancellor chose to investigate the custodians rather than management."

Contreras contended that the custodians had good performance evaluations and that they had no warnings before the notice of administrative leave.

The district claimed employees left work four hours early on many occasions, he added.

The CSEA has also filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the Public Employees Relations Board in San Francisco.

"Employees must be given an oral warning and a written warning before being put on administrative leave," Contreras said. "None of this was done."

The district maintains that employees did not receive oral and written warnings from the district because the problems dealt with conduct leading to criminal charges, not performance.

"If an employee embezzled money, we wouldn't issue an oral warning," Chancellor Leo Chavez said. "In this situation, it was time that was embezzled, and time costs money. We regret we had to do what we had to do, but we probably have a fundamental disagreement as to what is right and wrong in a situation like this."

Reports of computer thefts and other unusual activities prompted the investigation. The district planted an undercover campus police officer to work with custodians to monitor their conduct, but found no evidence that custodians had taken computers.

The officers' report has been turned over to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office for review, said Tom Conom, chief of campus police at Foothill College. He will know within the next few weeks if the D.A.'s office will move forward with any criminal charges, he said.

Hearings for the custodians stretched from February to April; in June the board of trustees unanimously upheld the hearing officer's recommendation to terminate 12 employees. Contreras contended that the hearings, which included more than 100 hours of testimony, might not have been fair because the hearing officer was hired by the district.

A total of eight custodians have been reinstated; five others retired and three others resigned, he said.

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