Guard Union Says Security Co. Refused To Reinstate Worker
Pennsylvania March 13 2021
Security company Paragon defied an arbitration award by refusing to reinstate an officer it had fired because it said he used a courthouse security system to monitor a co-worker, the worker’s union claimed in a Pennsylvania federal court.
The suit that United Government Security Officers of America and its Local 129 filed Thursday seeks to enforce an October 2019 arbitration award that directed Paragon Systems Inc. to rehire security officer Robert Reuther after finding the misconduct claimed by the company did not warrant his dismissal.
“Paragon has not complied with the award by providing Reuther with reinstatement or back health benefits,” the UGSOA said.
Reuther had worked since 2004 as a court security officer at the William J. Nealon Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which houses the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He became a Paragon employee in December 2017, when the company took over the contract for security guards at the courthouse.
Paragon fired Reuther in January 2018 over workplace disputes with co-workers. In one of the incidents, Paragon said Reuther used the court’s closed-circuit security system to follow a co-worker and then called him so the co-worker would get into trouble for using his phone on the job. Reuther and the union argued that Reuther was gathering information about smartwatches such as the one the co-worker was wearing for the benefit of union members and that a profanity-filled voice message he left was an inadvertent pocket dial, according to the arbitration award.
The union filed a grievance over the firing under a collective bargaining agreement between the union and the previous employer. The dispute landed before arbitrator Stephen Rosen, who ruled in October 2019 that while Reuther “engaged in some level of wrongdoing,” Paragon had not shown it had just cause to fire him.
Rosen ordered Paragon to reinstate Reuther and to restore his health benefits, though he did not require the company to pay back pay or count vacation time he would have accrued.
The UGSOA said in its lawsuit that Paragon has not abided by this order, and asked a federal judge to enforce the award with interest.
The UGSOA declined to comment.
Counsel for the union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Paragon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The UGSOA and Local 129 are represented by Kristen Barnes of McDonald Lamond Canzoneri and by John Bielski of Willig Williams & Davidson.
Counsel information for Paragon Systems Inc. was not immediately available.
The case is United Government Security Officers of America International Union et al. v. Paragon Systems Inc., case number 3:21-cv-00439, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
