“It’s really hard to be patient and issue progressive discipline when you’re living with an employee that’s not showing up appropriately or providing the appropriate level of skill and attention to their job – but if an employer can be patient and illustrate that progressive discipline was followed, it will be in a much better position to terminate the employee and not have them back.”
So says Jackie Laviolette, a labour and employment lawyer at Mathews Dinsdale in Calgary, after an Alberta arbitrator upheld the firing of a long-term care worker for carelessness and inappropriate behaviour that had led to two previous suspensions.
“The employer was very patient, but they didn’t condone any conduct on the way to termination,” says Laviolette. “It’s a long process but, ultimately, the arbitrator supported what the employer did and upheld the termination of a tenured employee because of the path of progressive discipline they took.”
