said by Steve:I do hope that all the facts come out, and if it turns out that this has been going on forever, I can't see why heads shouldn't roll in management too - I don't expect managers to follow their workers out in the field every day, but to not check up on them at all? Really?
Depends on the manager/supervisor. Part of their job ensure work is being done. Being that these 29 men/women were fired, you can be 100% sure this wasn't a one off. You don't get fired for slacking off for 1 day. This likely was going on for a while, with the guys doing minimal work. At some point, management caught on, and started to investigate. It's very unlikely that them taking entire days off was ongoing, but you can be guaranteed that this style of slacking off had been. I also propose that between the union and highly unknowledgeable and management staff (since cities only higher managers with a MBA's now), the managers would be totally clueless with how long it should take to fill a 2' by 3' pothole with a 2.5" inch depth.
What I'm basically saying is that these guys were likely given insufficient work and felt it okay to take lieu days with their co-workers.