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Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2017
News | November 2017 | CSR
Falsified post-incident drug test
worse than having marijuana at work
Marijuana in worker's system not evidence of impairment,
but worker's dishonesty in trying to falsify test results was just cause for dismissal
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
AN ALBERTA company had just
cause to dismiss a worker who
failed a drug test not because she
had marijuana with her on the
job but instead because she tried
to falsify her test results, an adju-
dicator has ruled.
Dawn Gilbert was a pilot truck
driver for D & D Energy Ser-
vices, an oilfield transportation
company based in Grande Prai-
rie, Alta. Hired in 2009, Gilbert
hauled heavy oilfield equipment
to various oilfield sites.
D & D had a drug and alcohol
policy that stated an employee
who tests positive for drugs or
alcohol would be placed on "in-
definite leave, pending a thor-
ough physical and psychological
examination." It also said termi-
nation could be avoided with
"proper medical attention and
rehabilitation." In addition, it
stipulated that possessing, con-
suming, and using illegal drugs
in any company vehicle while on
duty was a violation of the policy.
Gilbert signed a letter acknowl-
edging she read and understood
the policy in 2013.
Gilbert had a disciplinary
record that included a written
warning for speeding in Septem-
ber 2011, an accident in January
2012 when her truck slid into a
ditch and hit a tree, and a July
2012 incident in which she dam-
aged a truck bumper when she
backed into a cement barrier in
parking lot.
On Feb. 2, 2016, D & D was
contracted to move a drilling rig
from one site to another. Gilbert
was assigned to do road patrol in
her pilot truck on a gravel lease
road between the two drilling
sites, which were four kilometres
apart. It was early in the morning
and still dark, though the road
had been grated and loose snow
removed.
Gilbert went around a corner
in the road and lost control of
the truck, sliding off the road and
rolling it into the ditch. Another
pilot truck driver arrived on the
scene and found the truck lying
on the driver's side with airbags
deployed. Gilbert was standing
on the driver's door collecting
items from inside the truck and
putting them in a bag. She then
crawled out of a window with the
bag.
The other pilot truck driver
stepped out of her own truck to
help and immediately smelled
marijuana. Gilbert said she was
uninjured and, according to the
Worker's > pg. 7
