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.

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