During one of Nashville’s major snowstorms this winter, an SEIU member for Metro Government wrecked his truck trying to get to work. His supervisor decided to charge him “Absent Without Leave”, which would have caused him to lose one day’s pay and the sick day that he would have accrued for the month.

When the issue was raised with his supervisor, the supervisor dug in her heels. That’s when the Union Representative took the issue to the Department’s director, who had no idea the incident even occurred. The next day, the employee’s AWOL had been downgraded to “emergency excused leave”, which meant that the employee didn’t lose pay or his sick day because of something he had no control over.