Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2016
Canadian Employment Law Today | 3
Cases and Trends
Worker's clean record
deserves leniency: Arbitrator
60-day suspension for insubordination and inappropriate conduct
by worker reduced to 20 days in light of first offence
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
A 60-DAY suspension for insubordinate
and threatening behaviour for a British Co-
lumbia worker with no previous record of
discipline was too harsh, an arbitrator has
ruled.
Montreal-based aluminum mining and
production company Rio Tinto Alcan hired
Geoffrey Watt to be an equipment opera-
tor at its Kitimat, B.C., works in 2005. In
2009, Watt became a senior cell operator
in pot lines, where he maintained pots and
performed other duties including process
corrections. Watt became a union safety
representative in 2008 and was chief area
representative for the reduction department
a year later. In 2013, he became co-chair of
the plant's safety committee.
On Oct. 28, 2013, Watt was part of a crew
doing crust breaking when he saw a crane
operator in a crane's basket waiting for them
to pass. When he came back a short time
later, the crane operator was planting a stud.
Watt was concerned because doing this dur-
ing crust breaking could result in an explo-
sion, so he moved away to "get out of the line
of fire."
Worker reacted with profanity
Watt called a supervisor to tell him what
happened and said he refused to do any fur-
ther work around that crane operator. He
was angry and used profanity during the
conversation. Later, Watt testified he wasn't
sure exactly what he said, but acknowl-
edged that he used the phrase "is is f---ing
bulls—t" often in front of supervisor.
e supervisor calmed Watt down and
brought a work refusal form to the office.
Watt said he wanted to fill out the form so it
wouldn't become a disciplinary issue for the
crane operator. Since Watt wasn't actually
refusing to do work, the supervisor didn't
complete the form.
e next day, Watt called the supervisor
again, this time complaining about the pot
room roof building lights that hadn't been
fixed. He claimed he had asked another su-
pervisor to fix them before he returned from
vacation or he would call WorkSafeBC —
the previous day had been his first day back
— but this hadn't been done. According to
Watt's supervisor, Watt said, "this is f---ing
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