Canadian Safety Reporter - sample

5 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2016 5 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2016 News | October 2016 | CSR Military base worker fired after aggressive campaign Worker with history of anger issues wouldn't stop harassing co-worker and didn't co-operate with employer's mediation attempts BY JEFFREY R. SMITH A MILITARY CONTRACTOR had just cause to dismiss a work- er on a military base in Bosnia for aggressive and intimidating behaviour towards co-workers, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench has ruled. The 60-year-old worker was in the military until 1983 when he was discharged due to a de- pendence on alcohol that had 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. The worker was hired on Dec. 11, 2000, by Atco, a military con- tractor that provided commu- nications, supplies, and trans- port at Canadian military bases. Two weeks later, he started his employment as a transport dis- patcher at Base Black Bear, a Ca- nadian military base in Bosnia. The base was secure and ac- cess to it was tightly controlled. As a result, the worker and other personnel were required to wear identification cards while in the base. His job involved a 12-week rotation followed by four weeks of vacation, where he was re- sponsible for the dispatch of 50 vehicles, who drove them, and 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. Turner received positive per- formance reviews in June and August 2001. In February 2002, the worker organized a gathering of past members of the airborne regi- ment — an occasion he set up ev- ery second month. He had writ- ten down the amount of pizza to order from the base kitchen, but unbeknownst to him the order wasn't actually placed. When the pizza didn't arrive for the gathering, he got the impression an Atco manager had cancelled the food. The worker exchanged heated words with the manager and swore at him. The manager asked if the worker was threaten- ing 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 that there was a mis- communication over the pizza order but the worker's conduct towards the manager was "inap- propriate, inexcusable and bel- ligerent." The worker was given a written warning stating his be- haviour was unacceptable and a repeat of it or similar behaviour would result in discipline up to and including dismissal. The worker refused to accept the warning letter but it was placed in his employment file. Atco referred him to an employ- ee assistance program for anger management but he didn't fol- low through. Worker suspected co-worker of theft About three months after the pizza incident with the Atco manager, the worker was on duty at the dispatch office when a sol- dier left a television with the in- structions to have it delivered to another army base. The worker left the television in a box with no instructions and went off shift for four days. While he was gone, another dispatcher came on duty, saw the television, and assumed it was for the driver's room since the drivers and dis- patch had been requesting a new television. She had a driver in- stall the set in the driver's lounge. When the worker returned to duty, he realized the mistake and had the television delivered as requested. He then confronted the other dispatcher as to why she dealt with the television the way she did. The other dis- patcher didn't see a problem, since it was the worker's mistake in not labelling the box. How- ever, the worker accused her of theft and commented to another dispatcher that "People around here are acting like a bunch of Somalians, a bunch of thieves." A short time later, in July 2002, the worker was on duty when a soldier asked him about a bag that was left in a vehicle. Some- one else overheard and said the bag had been handed into dis- patch earlier, which made the worker suspicious that the other dispatcher had taken it. The bag was later returned to dispatch and when the worker gave it to the soldier, the soldier gave him a look that the worker took to think soldiers thought the dispatchers were thieves. The worker complained to his supervisor that the other dis- patcher had stolen the bag and then returned it. The supervisor didn't do anything about the worker's complaint, so the worker took it upon himself to discuss the matter with the other dispatch- er. According to the other dis- patcher, the worker came into the office, walked up behind her, then walked away and told her he had experience as a de- tective and she was a thief. He also said such behaviour made all Atco employees look bad to the military. She claimed the worker acted aggressively and Credit: Shutterstock/Alita Xander Worker's aggression > pg. 8

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