Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER September 5, 2016 EMPLOYMENT LAW 5 Jeffrey Smith Legal View RECRUITING FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS? O er positions to over 200,000 Members Highly targeted advertising Immediate matching resume database access FOR MORE INFORMATION, cpacanada.ca/CPASource TELEPHONE•416 204 3284•EMAIL•TGardiner@cpacanada.ca 14-126a_EN_CPAsource_fullpagead_9.625x7.indd 1 1/5/2016 3:24:31 PM Military base worker in Bosnia fired after aggressive behaviour Wouldn't stop harassing co-workers, didn't co-operate with employer's mediation A military contractor had just cause to dis- miss a worker on a military base in Bosnia for aggressive and intimidating behaviour towards co-workers, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench has ruled. e 60-year-old worker was in the military until 1983 when he was discharged due to a depen- dence on alcohol that caused him to get into too many fights. He continued to drink for some time until 1987, when he decided to turn his life around and quit drinking. e worker was hired in 2000 by Atco, a military contractor that provided communications, supplies and transport at Cana- dian military bases. Two weeks later, he started his employment as a transport dispatcher at Base Black Bear, a Canadian military base in Bosnia. e base was secure and ac- cess to it was tightly controlled. The worker's job involved the dispatch of 50 vehicles and their drivers on the base, along with vehicle maintenance. When the worker was hired, he also agreed to Atco's code of ethics as well at the National Defence Act's code of service discipline. e worker received positive performance reviews in June and August 2001. In February 2002, the worker or- ganized a gathering of past mem- bers of the airborne regiment. He had written down the amount of pizza to order from the base kitch- en but, unbeknownst to him, the order wasn't actually placed. When the pizza didn't arrive, he got the impression an Atco man- ager had cancelled the food. e worker exchanged heated words with the manager and swore at him. e manager asked if the work- er was threatening him and the worker replied, "I don't threaten. I follow through." Atco investigated the alterca- tion, including interviewing the worker and the manager. It was determined there was a miscom- munication over the pizza order but the worker's conduct towards the manager was "inappropriate, inexcusable and belligerent." e worker was given a written warning stating his behaviour was unacceptable and told a repeat of it or similar behaviour would re- sult in discipline, up to and includ- ing dismissal. e worker refused to accept the warning letter but it was placed in his employment file. Atco also referred him to an em- ployee assistance program for an- ger management but the worker didn't follow through. Worker suspected co-worker of theft About three months after the pizza incident, the worker was on duty at the dispatch office when a soldier left instructions to have a TV delivered to another base. e worker left the TV in a box with no instructions and went off shift for four days. While he was gone, another dispatcher saw the television and assumed it was for the driver's room since the drivers had been requesting a new television. She had a driver install the set in the driver's lounge. When the worker returned to duty, he realized the mistake and had the TV delivered as re- quested. He then confronted the other dispatcher as to why she ATCO > pg. 17 Credit: Todd Korol (Reuters) Nancy Southern, president and CEO of Atco, at the company's annual meeting in Calgary in 2014.

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