2024-02-23 Merit Appeals Board Minutes

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Merit Appeals Board MR. KUNZ: Thank you. February 23, 2024 MS. MATHEWS: If I may, I'm concerned that this still isn't a clear statement to somebody that—this isn't their world. It's our world. And we're using terms like "appellant," and including that what—yeah—Mr. Kunz said things like "strict rules of evidence" that's a legal term. I'm this is something my daughter would say to me when she's arguing. And I don't think it goes as far as I would like to see the appellant have or it may be the appellant somehow is given an advocate of some kind that can help them through the process. We have attorneys, we have lots of trained, excellent staff, et cetera—and that immediately puts us in a severe imbalance this is a David and Goliath kind of a thing. And I don't feel that this (inaudible) I was concerned. I mean, yes, it's a start. I mean, that's great. But if this isn't your world, we end up with what we've seen in the past and I don't think it's fair. MS. DE SOTO: Can I ask at which or what point would the appellant or the potential the employee that has the potential to appeal—receive this document? CHR. CABANAS: We were thinking, once the person files an appeal with the de—with our secretary -reporter, on behalf of the Merit Appeals Board that they receive this. Note—we have to take note that once they file an appeal, they are an appellant. Okay. So, we use that term "appellant." This is just a general summary of what's involved. Now, appellants have the right to representation—they—some will bring an attorney, some will bring their union agent as the representative, some will bring a family member to assist them in the appeal hearing, and then there are those that just come by themselves in an appeal and represent themselves. This is just a synopsis of what happens in an appeal hearing. What would be your recommendation, Ms. Mathews, to make this more user-friendly? MS. MATHEWS: Actually, the first thing I'd do is throw this in the ChatGPT and say, "Make this be useable for somebody that's got a 7h grade education." Because I would, for example, the first sentence—"will notify the Appel lant""will notify you, the Appellant," goes a lot further along for clarification. And so, it's more a matter of making this being more palatable for somebody that this isn't their world. If somebody's working at a transfer station and backing up a truck—and they've got an issue—all this is going to do is scare them from doing what is their right. They probably don't have the money for an attorney nor they would know where to get one. They probably don't have friends, necessarily, that know how to deal with this or what they'll get is a friend that might tell them over a few beers that they're not here in this environment. And so, that's what I was after is this still feels really imbalanced and, I mean, I appreciate the effort I really do but being the middle of working on a project with 28 nations with different languagesI'm very sensitive to this kind of thingis, to me, this is a language problem. Page 15