Canadian Labour Reporter

8 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2017 September 11, 2017 ARBITRATION AWARDS September 11, 2017 CBS should have disciplined employee earlier: Arbitrator have been $2,500, not more than $5,000. After the meeting, she was placed on administrative leave and given a letter that said: "This is not a disciplinary action, but is intended to allow time to review the issues thoroughly and to de- termine appropriate action." During another meeting on Aug. 30, LR continued to insist the charges were a mistake and noth- ing criminal had happened. Two more interviews on Oct. 10 and Nov. 15 yielded the same result. The next day, LR returned to work after Glen Munro, SCC di- rector, decided to allow her back but with restrictions against han- dling money or being involved with prisoner case management. She remained on the job until her conviction in 2014, for theft under $5,000. The trial was published in the local Saskatoon StarPhoenix newspaper and it identified LR as a correctional officer and pub- lished an accompanying photo. Pat Sommervill, the new SCC director, had an interview with LR the day after her conviction. She again explained the charge re- mained a misunderstanding and she planned an appeal against the conviction. Eventually, on Jan. 15, 2015, LR was terminated after Sommervill decided she showed no remorse for the conviction. "Your explanation given to the employer, that you were involved in an innocent misunderstanding concerning travel expenses be- tween Saskatoon and Porcupine Plain, does not align with the find- ings in court. You have not been forthright or honest with the em- ployer and you continue to deny being involved in any miscon- duct," read a letter from the SCC. The publicity from the newspa- per brought "public disrepute to and negatively reflects on the cen- tre and the ministry as a whole," read the letter. The union, Saskatchewan Gov- ernment and General Employees' Union, grieved the dismissal and argued it should have been re- duced to a suspension. And the fact that LR worked for two years after being charged, and was discipline-free during that time, meant the employer-em- ployee relationship was not dam- aged beyond repair, according to the union. Arbitrator Allen Ponak dis- missed the grievance. "I conclude that the grievor was not forthcoming with her employ- er because she was attempting to cover up her wrongdoing. This behaviour continued during the trial and does not show recogni- tion of wrongdoing. Nor did the grievor display contrition follow- ing her conviction," he said. The nature of the crime was also a reason to uphold the termi- nation, said the arbitrator. "She stole money for her personal use from a vulnerable family member with limited financial resources who was under her care. It is hard- ly a stretch to note that correc- tional officers daily supervise vul- nerable people under their care," said Ponak. Because the trial was covered by the local newspaper, it caused harm to the employer, he said. "The very negative publicity surrounding the grievor's convic- tion is another factor that I have taken into account. The media's role ought not to be determina- tive as to whether a person retains employment or not, but I am sat- isfied that the newspaper articles identifying the grievor as a Saska- toon correctional officer was very damaging to the employer's repu- tation," according to Ponak. Reference: Government of Saskatchewan Public Service and Saskatchewan Government and General Employees' Union. Allen Ponak — arbitrator. Robert Winter for the employer. Glenn Billingsley for the employee. June 16, 2017. < Corrections officer pg. 1 During a meeting, he was ad- vised the 7 a.m. delivery option was not to be offered for routine orders if it would trigger a call- back. (CBS workers typically received a call-back after they left work at the end of their shifts to return to the office early in the morning to prepare a blood delivery for a hos- pital.) In August, a set of guidelines was issued that said: "No 'routine' orders should result in a call- back." Only STAT or ASAP orders would trigger a call-back, as those orders from hospitals constituted an emergency, according to the new rules. But in 2016, two call-backs (May 5 and 6) were questioned by staff and CBS, and an investiga- tion was launched. London said he called Georges- L.-Dumont hospital in Moncton on May 5 to offer them expiring blood products. He claimed he offered them two options for de- livery, one of which would result in a call-back that London would claim for extra pay, as per the col- lective agreement which prom- ised time and one-half pay for a minimum of three hours for any overtime. Véronique Savoie, laboratory technologist in the hematology department, testified she was told by London to write the order as: "7 a.m. bus, STAT," on the form and it would be delivered first thing next morning. Carolyn Sweetland, labora- tory assistant at the Dartmouth, N.S., facility of CBS, testified she thought London "was trying to manipulate a call-back" as the or- der would normally be considered routine. Another order on May 6 was offered to the hospital by London that resulted in a call-back to fill the order for a 7 a.m. delivery. London was terminated after a July 7 meeting. "You have deliberately engaged in behaviour that resulted in you being called back to the workplace when it was not required. Your behaviour ranged from manipu- lating departmental guidelines to your personal advantage, to re- cently instructing a hospital how to complete orders on May 5 and 6, 2016," said a letter he was given from CBS. "Your behaviour has irrepara- bly broken the trust inherent in any viable working relationship, especially when you are required to work alone with little to no su- pervision. Given the foregoing, your employment with Canadian Blood Services is hereby termi- nated, effective immediately," ac- cording to the letter. The union, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 2069, grieved the firing and argued Lon- don was "unjustly" dealt with. Arbitrator Michel Doucet dis- agreed and ordered the dismissal to stand. "London knew that his conduct was wrong. He had been explicitly told during the July 2015 meeting with the employer that 'routine' orders should not justify call-backs. He had seen the guide- lines that the employer had issued in 2015. He knew or should have known that the order for expir- ing platelets of May 5 should have been marked 'routine,' but he ad- vised the client to indicate 'STAT.'" But CBS should have been more forceful in its earlier discus- sion with London, said Doucet. "In hindsight, the employer should maybe have imposed for- mal discipline on London in July 2015 for what it considered as an improper use of call-backs. It hoped that by making matters clearer to London, that he would bring the appropriate corrections and that the issue would be re- solved. The message did not seem to get through and London con- tinued to ignore the warnings he had received." Reference: Canadian Blood Services and Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 2069. Michel Doucet — arbitrator. Christopher Stewart for the employer. Michael Davidson for the employee. May 1, 2017. < Blood worker pg. 1

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