PM40065782
Emplo
y
ment Law Today
Canad ad a ian
www.employmentlawtoday.com
May 23, 2018
Dismissal of insubordinate
worker not a progressive step
Worker with clean record disobeyed management directive and lied about it
but employer didn't follow its stated policy of progressive discipline
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
A NEW BRUNSWICK employer must pay
a former worker 10 months' wages for fail-
ing to follow progressive discipline when it
fi red him for not obeying a direction not to
drive vehicles at work while the worker's li-
cence was suspended.
Steeve Roy, 45, was an operations tech-
nician at the Bathurst, N.B., airport run by
Northern New Brunswick Airport. e
airport was regional and provided airplane
service to the northeastern area of New
Brunswick and was subject to the various
standards, regulations, procedures, and laws
under Transport Canada and related legis-
lation. e airport's main customer was Air
Canada, while it also served charter fl ights,
air ambulances, and as a training facility for
air cadets and reservists.
Roy's job involved providing meteorologi-
cal information and status reports on run-
Gas-stealing corrections
offi cer should be corrected,
not fi red pg. 3
Offi cer used employer's gas card to
gas up own vehicle, but owned up
Dual obligations to 'believe
the women' and provide due
process pg. 4
How the #metoo movement will
challenge employer responses
UNSUPERVISED on page 6 »
COMMON PRACTICE
on page 7 »
Ask the Expert pg. 2
Employee calling in sick
too much
CREDIT:
DEYMOSHR/SHUTTERSTOCK
with Brian Johnston
Public works foreman fi red
for unauthorized borrowing and repayment
Employee claimed it was common practice to borrow funds informally
from local businessman and repay them with employer's resources
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
AN ALBERTA First Nations band had just
cause to terminate its public works manager
for using the band's resources to repay an
informal loan with a local store owner, de-
spite the manager's claims it was common
practice, an adjudicator has ruled.
Neal Potts was foreman in the public works
department of the Samson Cree Nation, a
First Nations band near Maskwacis, Alta. He
was hired in 1975 and was responsible for a
crew of 10 heavy equipment operators and
truck drivers. e crew hauled material such
as sand, gravel, and dirt, maintained roads,
and picked up waste. As foreman, Potts' job
was to conduct morning safety meetings, as-
sign tasks to the crew, and check on jobs in
the fi eld to ensure things were getting done.
He also informed the public works manager
of the crew's daily and weekly progress on
various jobs.
Potts had received verbal warnings in the
past, but records of this weren't kept. A new
public works manager who started in 2015
gave him a verbal warning about a failure to
follow direction and spoke to him about not
