Bellsouth is firing me

[Luaderdale SS]

Below is the article from the miami herald, it sums it up. But, here goes, one night 14 years ago (I was 19) I went fishing with my friends and on the trip home I drove my buddys p/u truck. He was drunk and I didnt drink, he was on probation too. we get pulled over for people in the bed sitting on the inner wheel wells and the cop says they need to sit dow. Cool so far, he asks who truck, I say his and point to my buddy. They run our names and say your on probation to him, he nodes, yup. The cop askes about weapons/drugs he says none on him, cop asks to search truck, he say ok. Cop find pot 1/8 oz bag under HIS seat. writes us all up a ticket for poss of pot. I plead say I dont smoke, test me, he says tell the judge. court date comes and young and dumb me says to the judge not my pot, I was doing the right thing as a designated driver. He offers a no judgement/ajudification withheld and pay a fine, he assures me there will be no record. Well there is, and after 8 years at the phone company I will be let go.

 

read article below

 

 

 

 

Miami Herald, The (FL)

February 22, 2007

Section: Business

Edition: Final

Page: 1C

 

 

Workers' pasts may end jobs

NIALA BOODHOO [email protected]

 

More than three dozen local phone company workers are finding that past transgressions, unearthed by Miami-Dade County School Board criteria related to the Jessica Lunsford Act, may now cost them their jobs.

The workers are rarely, if ever, on school grounds, and are bewildered because their crimes have nothing to do with children. But AT&T says the company cannot allow the workers to continue to go out on calls if they aren't cleared by Miami-Dade's standards. AT&T and the workers' union say the Miami-Dade criteria is more strict than that in neighboring counties.

 

Take Carlos Balido. Almost 20 years ago, the service technician pleaded no contest to possession of marijuana. Now, with four years to go to retirement, Balido is being told that act will cost him his current position with AT&T.

 

"I'm in jeopardy of losing everything, just because of the way that they're interpreting the law," Balido said.

 

Two years ago, state regulators passed the law after 6-year-old Jessica Lunsford was killed in Homasassa. The man accused of killing her, John Couey, is now on trial in Miami. The law named after her requires fingerprinting and criminal background checks for contractors who work at public schools while children are present.

 

APPEALS DENIED

 

Thirty-seven AT&T workers, who say their jobs rarely take them near school property, are on unpaid leave from the company because they have not been cleared by local school board standards, according to the workers' union. AT&T said the workers may appeal the process to the school board, but workers say their appeals have been denied.

 

The union is lobbying school board members here and lawmakers in Tallahassee to help the workers. If they are not cleared by April, the workers worry they will be terminated. Some think they may lose pensions and healthcare benefits.

 

"This has nothing to do with kids," said one worker, Ken Matthews. Thirty years ago, he was charged with aggravated assault after he joined his brother in a fight.

 

The employees and their families, many of whom asked not to be named, say they are worried about losing their livelihoods. Some of them are parents and foster parents themselves, and they say they are bewildered they have been singled out because of an act intended to protect children from predators.

 

Things they did decades before -- in some cases unknown to their families -- are being unearthed, sometimes from sealed records.

 

"When you're growing up, people do a lot of stupid things" said Matthews, 55, a facility technician who has worked for the phone company for 37 years and is incredulous he is facing forced early retirement.

 

Under Miami-Dade School Board policy, anyone with a criminal record, including pretrial intervention, adjudication withheld or guilty pleas related to 25 different crimes, cannot be hired as an employee or work on school grounds. Many crimes on the list involve children, such as child abuse, but other offenses include drug possession, aggravated assault and battery.

 

INTERPRETATIONS

 

Each county has different ways of dealing with the law. In Monroe, the school board is screening for crimes against children, rape or murder. In Broward, the board screens for a similar list to Miami-Dade's but has an appeals process that considers the actual crime and when it was committed and takes into account letters of recommendation from employer, said Joe Melita, who heads the district's special investigative unit and meets personally with those who are appealing.

 

One contractor came through the Broward appeals process after being flagged because of a lewd and lascivious charge. It turned out to be public urination on the side of a Florida highway during a trip 20 years ago, said Melita, who considered the worker's otherwise clean record and letters of recommendation from his employer before clearing him to be allowed on school grounds.

 

"Ninety-nine percent of the cases don't involve children. And if it [does], we're not going to help them," said Don Abicht, president of Communication Workers of America Local 3122.

 

But Abicht thinks that Miami-Dade and Orange counties have stepped "way over the edge" in their interpretations of the act.

 

'HOG LARCENY'

 

In Orange County, phone workers who were flagged include a longtime worker who was charged with "hog larceny" -- shooting a pig outside of hunting season 30 years ago. He was later cleared, union officials say.

 

AT&T Florida spokesman Don Sadler said the company is offering other jobs to workers who ask to be transferred. The work would be mostly as service representatives or engineering assistants, said Sadler, who did not know whether the pay was comparable to the cable and service technicians jobs.

 

It's not possible to flag the affected workers so they aren't called out to schools, said Sadler. "Our network is enormous, and it is extremely complex in its design. We don't know if our technicians might have to end up working on school property," he said.

 

BEYOND THE LAW

 

Sadler said the company supported proposed legislation in Tallahassee that would revise and standardize background screening checks for school contractors, saying that what is happening to these workers goes beyond the intent of the original law.

 

"To lose an employee on a situation like this is something we're going to work hard on resolving," he said, adding he understood the Miami-Dade School Board was meeting Friday to further discuss the situation.

 

School Superintendent Rudy Crew said Wednesday that this was a "board matter."

 

"It will be taken up at the appropriate time," he said declining to comment further.

 

To date, about 12,000 contract workers have been fingerprinted, the first step in the background checks, according to the school board. About 4 percent of those workers have since been told not to work on school grounds.

 

Cable repairman Marshall Morton says he feels betrayed by the company and the school board.

 

"It's extreme," said Morton, 38, who was flagged because of a possession charge almost 15 years ago. "I've got two kids. I've got to keep a roof over their head. They're really hurting us."

 

Miami Herald staff researcher Monika Leal contributed to this report.

[drako]

Miami dade should be abolished, its inefficient and does everything ass backward, and the epicenter to it all is the damn school board!

[rivierakid55]

that is really unfortunate for you. similar situation with my older brother who was convicted of 3 felonies almost 20 years ago including possesion with intent to distibute (he was dealing narcotics out of his cab). did his time, went along in life, got married two kids. he applied to have his record sealed which he thought was granted. it was sort of.

 

he finished his ba in teaching last year and after applying was told by the state board that he could not teach beacuase of the felonies. his record is sealed as far as voting/gun registration and what not but that doesnt apply to being a teacher in the state of california unfortuantely. 4 years at berkeley basically down the drain as far as that major goes.

 

really hope that you have some recourse for this as that is just a rotten stupid thing that is happening. keep us posted.

[r8rs4lf]

Wow, that's crazy man! Hopefully everything will work out for you.

 

We are having something like that here. Homeland security wants us to have these identification cards that will cost us something like $160.00, yet they aren't having the truck drivers get one even though they come on port land, some of which are illegals. Well, why the hell do we need one? They are also doing something like a 7 year backround check and some people may lose their jobs for something they did 7 years ago. If they already payed their "dues", why punish them again? Alot of ass backwards shit going on in the world!

[Luaderdale SS]

Its not just Dade, its the whole state, I live outside Dade. And my crime was a misdemeanor with ajudification withheld.

[mwalls54]

Can you transfer to another county?

[BOB47]

I'd like to see if the judges and lawyers there could pass that test. Most of the police force would fail also. How about the CEO of your company? Damn lawyers have got this country and businesses scared to death to fart without fear of someone suing them.

[Luaderdale SS]

I am just really bummed out. I have worked too hard to get what I have, a good job, house, new truck...

to have it taken away for a stupid little thing like that. I have not, nor will I ever be a threat to any child, and they think I am? What about all the people at school sporting events? why not background check them? aaarrrgggghhh!!!

[drako]

I'd like to see if the judges and lawyers there could pass that test. Most of the police force would fail also. How about the CEO of your company? Damn lawyers have got this country and businesses scared to death to fart without fear of someone suing them.

in florida theres a problem with this too...

My cousin was a law student and the same thing happened. EXACT thing. A guy asked him to drive him home, he was stopped found weed. Pleaded not guilty and my sister who is an attorney had to plead with the judge to let him off the hook. My cousin is a honors student and was a 3L (last semester of law school) interning in the justice department. bureaucratical If you lose the case or plead nolo contendere your F'ed and cant take the bar. This is a total mis interpretation of the law and it happens too much, such

[Schmids5.3l]

Sounds like Florida is the new California. I'd move, thats a bunch of shit.

 

Like the Ken Matthews guy, got charged with aggrivated assult...30 YEARS AGO! Just now loosing his job. Who hasent been in a fight, let alone when they were in their teens/early 20's? I wonder if their running checks on teachers, school bus drivers, custodians, principals, cops, fire fighters ect. Not saying anything bad, but hell they deserve to get checked also. Their no different than you and I. There's been multiple news stories on teachers getting caught bangin' students. Young ones too, as in Middle school kids.

[misterp]

You are the victim of a poorly written law; they should have included a phrase in it giving statute of limitations to misdemeanor charges, like only exclude staff with misdemeanors less than 5 years old, or some such exclusion. Being fired because you were charged with a misdemeanor 15+ years ago is not just BS, it's wrong and somebody needs to challenge that law as somehow unconstitutional.

 

Mr. P.

[04CHASE]

i had soemthign simlar happen to me when i was a senior in high school. i got a ticket for pot on the way home from snowboarding. (ill admit it was mine) so i go to court and all , didnt end up taking the diversion course because it was during school hours. last year i applied for budweiser, 3 years after the fact, passed a hair and urine test and upon my background check they find this ticket and inform me thay cant hire . The part that i looked up is that in ca a pot ticlet more than 2 years old cant be held against you. It was a pretty good job that paid well but i didnt get it. i was pissed for a while but then went to coca cola.

 

in your case. i dont know what to say . i woudl say get a lwayer but being how big your company is im sure they will be able to come up with some b.s. excuse they let you go.

[Luaderdale SS]

I think I am getting an ulser from the stress

[Bowtie70SS]

What a crock. Instead pf being proactive and working to solve the problems that they have Florida just slaps a band-aid on a bowling ball. I wonder why you don't see them crack down on immigration when a illegal kills someone? Why? Because there's no money in it...I figure there's gotta be an angle where they are making money. I would write my Congressman, Senator, local news, national news, and anyone who will listen. The squeaky wheel my man. On a side note I work for a phone company as well and lets just say they are always quick to blame/fire an employee I call it guilty till proven innocent. As for the union; I am a member and I hope you are not relying on them to help you. If your local is like ours then I wish you the best of luck.

 

Dave

[SSThunder]

I would contact any news agency who will listen. Call talk shows do whatever you can to bring the story to national attention. It's totally BS. I would take the story to washington DC and get some of those people on your side. they all suck but they've got power. Hope you get it worked out.