3. Consideration of Level III Grievance hearing of Kim Sanchez. At the request of the grievant this will be in open session pursuant to the Texas Open Meetings Act, section 551.074 (TSC meeting March 24.)
11. Consideration and possible action on Level III Grievance of Kim Sanchez. At the request of the grievant this will be in open session pursuant to the Texas Open Meetings Act, section 551.074 (TSC meeting April 21)
By Juan Montoya
What if a one of your longtime co-workers suddenly passed away from COVID-19 and you and his fellow employees took up a collection to help the family with his funeral expenses?
This time-honored and compassionate tradition in the American workplace goes on all over the country and generally people admire the solidarity of their fellow workers in a time of sadness and grieving for the family of the deceased.
Well, if you worked in the Texas Southmost College Dept. of Human Resources under Elizabeth Balderrama, Executive Director of Human Resources and Title IX Coordinator, expect to be terminated.
WTF?
That is what actually happened to Kim Sanchez, the former director of Employee Benefits at TSC. Sanchez's attorney John Shergold said that when Balderrama – new as director at HR – found out that Sanchez was taking up a collection, she immediately called her with TSC attorney Ruben Peña and, in an empty room, gave her the ultimatum to sing a paper acknowledging a violation of the college's "solicitation" policy, or resign, or be fired.
She refused and Balderrama terminated her.
During the grievance hearing held March 24, Shergold said that what the policy stated was that it was prohibited for TSC employees to "sell, offer for sale of any property or services for immediate or future delivery," and did not apply to a humanitarian act. He also said that she had filed an age-discrimination report with the Texas Workforce Commission
Peña had argued that there was no oversight of the collection and that Sanchez did not have to account for the amounts other employees had contributed or to whom she delivered the contributions.
The college should not incur liability for the collections among co-workers "no matter how heart-rendering it may be," he told the TSC board members. That she continued accepting donations for the family amounted to "insubordination," said Pena.
After hearing both sides and asking for more documentation from both attorneys, the board decided to make a decision on Sanchez's grievance on the April 21 meeting.
At that meeting, TSC trustee J.J. De Leon made the motion to deny Sanchez her age-discrimination claim but for the college to rehire her at her former position at the same salary and award her back pay and attorney's fees but to give her a two-week grace period to return so she could give notice to her current employer and it was approved unanimously.
The moral of this story?: If you're going to show sympathy for an old friend, make sure your boss doesn't get wind of it or you're in for it.
And for the TSC board: Finally, some common sense and ovarios.
11 comments:
what was her salary? 250k a year and the rest? A total of half a million? No friend of mine!
TSC admin messed up big time on this one and they're just trying to cover their a**es. Sanchez did nothing wrong
Do you know JJ Deleon has a soft heart for collections, because when JJ's brother was put in jail, Rachel Ayala was going around the glass palace with a coffee can colleting coins for JJ Deleon's brother.
Shergold does it again. One of very few people helping when regular folks get abused by the elites.
TERRIBLE.
SOME TRUSTEES ARE GOOD AND SOME OTHERS ARENT.
Only proves that TSC administration are a bunch of cold blooded heartless POS! Congratulations Kim!
and the rich get richer.
It’s clear in the court of public of opinion that Balderrama needed to put a feather in her hat by making a statement, albeit ignorant and fraught with stupidity, but a statement nonetheless. The bigger question then lies is Balderrama still employed? What kind of punishment has been laid out for Balderrama? Is this coming from the tone at the top that it’s OK to unravel an employee’s life for passing the hat to help the family of a deceased coworker? Is firing an employee who was demonstrating compassion and acting to help a distraught family an acceptable message to be passed down to impressionable minds within the walls of the college? Someone may want to check that attorney boy Ruben Pena, too, for supporting that message and also adding a draconian, malicious spin to “policy”. Certainly appears that there was malicious intent, collusion perhaps, between Balderrama and attorney boy to destroy a family’s life all for the sake of what? Yes, difficult to come up with a logical reason, right? Senseless, tone-deaf termination. Seems like Balderrama and attorney boy need to take a page from Ms. Sanchez and learn a thing or two about the value of compassion, sympathy, leadership and selfless acts for humans.
And whomever posted the comment about quarter million dollar salaries for an admin employee at a college, do yourself a favor and close your browser. Do not post. Do not pass Go. Pause. Think. Learn. Contemplate. Unless you’re buddies with Balderrama and attorney boy then it all makes perfect sense you’re coming from that same place of group think that is devoid of rational thought.
Can't really get mad at attorney boy. Guy was doing his job which was to try to fix Balderrama's fuck up. I mean seriously, what did you expect him to do? I appreciate he tried to do his job, albeit it was a losing cause from the start. As for Balderamma, she was the dumbass who fucked this up. She should be demoted for not knowing how to do her job correctly. And then, whomever thought it was ok to promote her to her current position should be demoted as well.
April 26, 2022 at 8:20 AM
"It’s clear in the court of public of opinion" Your court? The salary of these mamones IS a quarter million just glad they don't get free housing like the rest of the mamones, NOW THIS IS THE REAL COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION - IDIOTA!!
go back to your video games while at work
Pena is all right. The college has a history of doing shady shit to its employess and is good at, "finding a reason". Isnt she (Kim) under Gisella Figeroua? Another individual with a history of fucking over employees. I wish someone would do more investigation into this. Rumour has it that this is why Lissa Frausto left,she couldnt stomache all the unethical stuff they were asking her to do.
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