Dalton Assistant Fired Over Letter Secures Unemployment
DALTON, Mass. — According to an unemployment hearing officer, the letter resulting in the termination of the Select Board's former executive assistant doesn't appear to be confidential.
Nearly six months ago, the Select Board voted to fire Alyssa Maschino for sharing the anonymous letter addressed to "Dalton Select Board" and to iBerkshires, which was cc'd.
"There is nothing in the record to support an allegation that the claimant intentionally or deliberately shared the letter so as to cause the employer harm," the state Division of Unemployment Assistance hearing found. "Therefore, it cannot be concluded that the claimant's discharge was attributable to deliberate misconduct in willful disregard of the employer's interest."
The letter-writer had asked it be read out loud at the Jan. 27 Select Board meeting and contained complaints about board members and town officials.
The board did not read the letter. However, Maschino did share it with iBerkshires.com.
iBerkshires did not cover the letter's contents because of its overly broad complaints and lack of signature. The online newspaper does not publish anonymous letters.
During an executive session on Feb. 13, which Maschino requested to have in open session, the board placed her on administrative leave. On Feb. 19 she was discharged for sharing the letter with a reporter.
During the meeting, board members described her actions as a "breach of trust."
"Although the letter was critical of town officials, including the police chief and select board members, the information in the letter does not appear to be 'highly sensitive' or confidential," the DUA hearing officer found.
The Select Board did hold an executive session on Monday, July 28, on "strategy with respect to litigation" with Maschino regarding the DUA hearing.
The unemployment hearing on July 11, held by phone with Maschino, Johnson and Chair Robert Bishop, found the town did not establish substantial and credible evidence disqualifying Maschino from unemployment.
Under state law, a person is disqualified from unemployment if there is evidence to show that the claimant left voluntarily, involuntarily for urgent, compelling and necessitous reasons, for deliberate misconduct, or for knowingly violating a reasonable and uniformly enforced policy or rule.
According to the hearing's findings, the town upheld a policy that mandates confidentiality for highly sensitive information, which is outlined in the executive assistant's job description.
"The employer did not present a written policy to the hearing. Additionally, because the consequence for violation of the policy is disciplinary action at the discretion of the employer, it cannot be concluded that the policy is uniformly enforced. Therefore, it is concluded the claimant did not knowingly violate a reasonable and uniformly enforced written policy or rule," the hearing document states.
Additionally, an instruction from Bishop regarding whether the letter should be treated as confidential was unclear, the document states.
Maschino initially sent the letter only to Bishop by email, who later responded by text message with "Send it." Bishop said later that he meant it should be sent to the other board members.
"Given that the letter was addressed to the Select Board and the local newspaper, it was reasonable for the claimant to interpret the Chair's text message to mean send it to all the listed parties," the hearing officer said.
"Deliberate misconduct requires the claimant to have intentionally acted or failed to act in disregard of the employer's interest. A mistake, negligence, human error or poor judgment does not rise to the level of misconduct.
"Here, the claimant followed unclear instructions from the chair as she understood them. Although the chair may have intended for the claimant to send the letter to only the select board, his text message, as testified to by both parties, did not make that clear."
Maschino has previously expressed to iBerkshires the possibility of filing a wrongful termination suit.
Tags: fired, unemployment,
