Termination of employment was excessive for a British Columbia worker who committed a serious safety infraction but was apologetic and had no previous safety violations, an arbitrator has ruled.
The employer’s approach to the worker’s misconduct and the decision to dismiss was full of misunderstandings and misconceptions, according to Melanie Samuels, chair of the Employment and Labour Group at Singleton Reynolds in Vancouver.
“[The employer] seemed to ignore the actual circumstances of what happened in the incident, did a shoddy investigation and just jumped all over it,” says Samuels. “It’s almost like they ignored what actually happened, both in terms of the incident and [the worker’s] remorse.”
