Coin Toss Decides Library Jobs

Imagine the status of your job being determined by the toss of a coin. That's what the Hamilton (Ontario) Public Library did on March 26 to decide whether Usha Rangachari, a library technician, or her co-worker would be reassigned to another position.

Rangachari picked tails and got to keep her job of 14 years. Her losing colleague wasn't so lucky. "I feel so sick about it," Rangachari told the Hamilton Spectator. "It's not fair to do this to anybody."

The job shuffle came about because the library is about to merge with the neighboring Dundas and Wentworth systems. Rangachari, who works part time in the fine arts area, was pitted against an employee in another department. Because both had the same tenure, the library was forced to break the seniority tie with a coin toss, as stipulated by the employees' union. The employee who lost the toss has retained her position of library assistant within another department, says library spokesperson Beth Hovius.