Canadian Labour Reporter

8 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 October 8, 2018 ARBITRATION AWARDS termination from Telus. "Your failure to confirm with management or a wireline tech- nical prime before turning off the wireline equipment providing service to the Janvier community showed extremely poor judgment. Your failure to follow procedures and the guidance of a fellow tech- nician led to a significant service outage that left a community without phone service for almost 18 hours," said the letter. The shutdown also affected the RCMP landline, 911 service and a local medical centre. On July 29, Suwan was advised via email that there was interfer- ence on the network that had to be investigated. He met with another technician on Sept. 9 because Su- wan wasn't familiar with tracking interference and he wanted "re- fresher training." After discovering the likely cause of interference, Suwan sent an email to request further help. Terry Peebles, senior wireless network technician, responded first and he phoned Suwan to give him advice. Peebles testified that during the 15-minute conversation, he made it clear that Suwan should abide by the company's network activity rules (NAR), which stated a tech- nician must "check the traffic" before considering a shutdown of any equipment. Peebles also told Suwan he had to check with a TCI (Telus Com- munications) representative be- fore doing anything because as TMI (Telus Mobility) employees, they wouldn't know the status of TCI equipment. Peebles testified he was not familiar with Harris Quadralink equipment, but Suwan said that Peebles advised him, "It should not have been left on, kill it." Suwan's testing equipment then failed him and he called an- other technician to inquire if the interference remained. After be- ing told it did, Suwan "pulled the cards, turned it off and unplugged the coax cable in the back which goes to the antenna to transmit." During a Sept. 20 investigation interview, Suwan continued to blame Peebles for the shutdown. Suwan was terminated on Oct. 5. (Suwan finished a five-day sus- pension for speeding while on duty, which Telus also cited in the termination.) The union, Telecommunica- tions Workers Union (TWU) and United Steelworkers (USW), Lo- cal 1944, grieved the firing and argued Suwan was sent out to do a job with no training, which should mitigate against the company's re- sponse to his mistake. Arbitrator Alan Beattie dis- agreed and dismissed the griev- ance. "(Suwan's) lack of credibility, and his attitude throughout, takes this case over the line at which a long suspension might be sub- stituted for the termination. His inability to accept any responsi- bility or apologize for the serious incident, seeking to put the blame entirely on Peebles, showing no remorse, being so oblivious to following protocol and having no concern about the consequences of his actions, leave me with no doubt about termination of the employment relationship being the only appropriate discipline," said Beattie. Suwan's actions on Sept. 9, ne- cessitated his dismissal, said Beat- tie. "Someone with expertise has to assess the risk but (Suwan) did not know anything about the Quadralink which would enable him to make any assessment. He knew that he had to con- tact someone with knowledge to make the assessment, but he made no contact." And Peebles told the truth, ac- cording to Beattie, not Suwan. "Peebles did talk about traffic but (Suwan) chose to put his own distorted interpretation on the discussion. It is consistent with Peebles' testimony that it is not possible for a TMI employee to check for traffic and a TCI em- ployee has to be involved ," said Beattie. Reference: Telus and Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) and United Steelworkers (USW), Local 1944. Alan Beattie — arbitrator. John Gilmore, Dana Kiefer for the employer. Joe Benn, Shaheen Hirani for the employee. Aug. 12, 2018. 2018 CarswellNat 4843 request was still being denied. Early on March 2, Radeska texted Dunphy and said: "You have been marked as demand leave until further notice. Upon your return, you will need to produce medical documentation to substantiate your absence." Around 8 a.m. that morning, Dunphy phoned Radeska, who immediately opened a Micro- soft Word page to document the phone call. Dunphy berated Radeska and called him a "mo- ron" and he said, "You guys are all chicken shits" and management "hide(s) behind your white hats." Dunphy then told Radeska to come out to Whitby, Ont., where he lived so he could speak to him in person. Radeska refused and ended the conversation. Dunphy testified he didn't say anything about Whitby to Rades- ka because he was living with his mother in Oshawa, Ont., (which borders Whitby from the east) dur- ing the time of the conversation. After he returned to work on March 8, Dunphy went into a meeting with management and he denied making any comments to Radeska that could be considered violent or threatening. After another interview on March 10, Dunphy was fired for violating the TTC's workplace violence policy and for breaking a condition of a 2015 incident not to engage in any further insubor- dination with supervisors. The union, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Local 113, grieved the termination and ar- gued the comments were on the "low-side of the scale" in terms of being threatening. Arbitrator John Stout disagreed and upheld the firing. "If (Dunphy) had accepted some responsibility and demon- strated some insight, I may well have exercised my discretion to vary the penalty. However, (Dun- phy) has continued to deny cul- pability and has not accepted any responsibility. He has failed to apologize for his misconduct and tried to justify his earlier miscon- duct," said Stout. "(Dunphy) has also failed to provide any evidence that would lead me to believe or give me con- fidence that he might be able to change his ways and refrain from uttering threats in the future. In these circumstances, I see no rea- son to exercise my jurisdiction to vary the penalty," said Stout. Dunphy's earlier incident also convinced the arbitrator that similar outbursts might happen in the future. "(Dunphy) was relieved of du- ties without pay on that occasion and not reinstated until a week later (five days without pay) and subject to conditions," said Stout. "(Dunphy) subsequently re- ceived sensitivity training and yet he still could not control his im- pulse to be insubordinate and ut- ter intimidating threats towards his supervisor. In my view, (Dun- phy's) misconduct is indicative of someone who cannot be trusted to refrain from this sort of behav- iour." Reference: Toronto Transit Commission and Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 113. John Stout — arbitrator. Steve Lavender for the employer. Dean Ardron, Carlo Di Giovanni for the employee. Sept. 23, 2018. < reats made pg. 1 Employee put on own 'distorted interpretation': Arbitrator

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