Former Columbus bus driver says he was fired for requesting a horn that works

Michael Barnes, a Columbus bus driver with 17 years of experience, was fired from the city’s Metra transit agency for requesting a bus with a horn that works, he said in a recent interview with the Ledger-Enquirer.

Barnes said he first complained about a horn not working on a city bus to his his supervisor, a Metra safety representative, on January 14. On Jan. 20, he was assigned to a trolley that had the same problem, he said. While out in the field transporting riders, he notified a dispatcher who called him back and asked him to standby for a private call.

Barnes said his supervisor was on the line, and he called him back to the office to meet with him and another supervisor. At that meeting, the supervisor told him that he was accepting his resignation even though he had never resigned, Barnes said.

The termination came two months after Barnes was named “Metra Employee of the Month,” he said. He still has a photo of the award on his cell phone.

Barnes told his story sitting next to Opelika attorney, Barbara Agricola, who is representing him in a case against Metra.

“What happened to Mr. Barnes is essentially a constructive discharge,” Agricola said. “He was reporting a safety issue that he was obligated to report and he was then terminated for that. ...At this point and time, we’re going to be proceeding with filing an EEOC charge for retaliation; because it’s very clear that he was asked to resign; moreover, he was told that his resignation would be accepted as a result of the fact that he wanted a properly working horn.”

The Ledger-Enquirer tried contacting Metra Transit Director Rosa Evans about the case. A woman who answered the phone said Evans was told by her supervisor, Deputy City Manager Lisa Goodwin, not to say anything to the media.

When contacted by the newspaper, Goodwin said she had no details about the case and she wouldn’t be able to provide information even if she did.

“Since this is a case of a separation - be it resignation or termination - we would not comment on that because we don’t comment on personnel matters, regardless of the circumstance,” Goodwin said. Asked about bus safety, she said Metra has a maintenance process for keeping buses safe.

“Every bus operator has to pre-trip their bus,” she said. “In terms of that pre-tripping, there’s a form on every bus that they would have to complete before they take the bus out to see what the issues are. And then, at the end of the day, they do the same thing, in the event that some things have happen throughout the day.

“When there is an issue with a horn or something to that magnitude, then what we do is at the end of the evening when buses are turned in, then that’s when our service department would correct those things,” she said. “And so, we don’t turn buses in throughout the day for things such as horns.

“... Because a horn is out, that doesn’t stop buses from running,” she said.

Barnes, a native of Bronx, N.Y., said he began working for Metra in October, after working in the Middle East as a driver for Louis Berger, a global professional services corporation based in Morristown, New Jersey. Prior to that, he drove a city bus in Houston, a school bus in Hawaii, and a shuttle bus at Auburn University. In November, he received the the Metra “Employe of the Month” designation.

“I’ve never been written-up; I’ve never been late,” he said. “I always came to work, clean, cut and dry, groomed, everything.”

When he complained about the horn, the supervisor said the bus wouldn’t be fixed and he just had to drive it that way, he said. But Barnes said he couldn’t let the issue rest because it’s a matter of safety.

“When you go through a suburban neighborhood, and you have kids on their bikes not paying attention, you need your horn,” he said.

Barnes said Metra tried to stop his unemployment benefits, claiming that he didn’t show up for work on Jan. 21, 22 and 23. He appealed, and he’s now getting the benefits.

“I’d still be working today if he had just given me another bus with a horn on it,” he said of his his supervisor. “I feel I was treated unjustly.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2017 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Former Columbus bus driver says he was fired for requesting a horn that works."