An Ontario arbitrator has reinstated with a suspension a worker who used equipment upon which he wasn’t certified without authorization.
“It puts employers in a difficult position where you otherwise feel that you’ve got a justified case for termination based on progressive discipline or an egregious act of misconduct, and the response is, ‘Yeah, but no one got hurt this time,’” says Michael Horvat, a partner in the Workplace Law Group at Aird and Berlis in Toronto.
The worker was a labourer at GreenFirst Forest Products, a forest management and lumber company, at a sawmill plant in Chapleau, Ont. The sawmill was a safety-sensitive workplace.
