“When there’s serious [employee] misconduct, it’s not an automatic termination. Discipline is pretty much always deserved in those situations, but it can’t be a one-size-fits-all approach – you need to look at all of the factors when assessing the appropriate penalty for something like theft in the workplace.”
So says Nicolette Belliveau, a labour and employment lawyer at McInnes Cooper in Moncton, after an arbitrator ordered NB Power to reinstate a fired worker who reconnected electrical service to his home after it was disconnected for nonpayment of his bill.
The worker was employed by New Brunswick Power Corporation (NB Power), the province’s electricity provider, since 2001. He was a power line technician (PLT) and was promoted to general foreman in early 2021, which was the last level of unionized supervision. He had no discipline on his record.
