FPSLREB Decisions

Suspension (3 days) - Conflict of interest - Preferential treatment for a family member - Mitigating factors - the grievor was an appeals officer at the Burnaby Fraser Tax Services Office - he had a mentally challenged sister who lived in Winnipeg - as trustee of her affairs, he prepared his sister's income tax returns - his sister received a Notice of Reassessment indicating that she was being assessed a penalty of $432.70 - the grievor showed the Notice of Reassessment to a co-worker at his workplace, who advised him to file a Notice of Objection with their own tax office, which the grievor did - the evidence established that there was a six-month waiting time for other appeals to be processed and that appeals were processed on a first in, first out basis - also, the appeal of a person who lived in Winnipeg was ordinarily handled by the Winnipeg Tax Office - nonetheless, the co-worker processed the appeal of the grievor's sister right away and cancelled the penalty - the document recording the co-worker's disposition of the appeal was not submitted to a supervisor for review, although it was the normal procedure for a supervisor to review such a document - when these irregularities were brought to management's attention, the grievor was advised that the Notice of Objection would be invalidated and the matter would have to go through the Winnipeg Tax Office - the employer imposed a three-day suspension upon the grievor for having accorded preferential treatment to a family member in relation to her tax affairs - the adjudicator found that the grievor's actions were inappropriate and had an appearance of providing preferential treatment to his sister by having her appeal dealt with through the tax office where he worked - however, the adjudicator also found that the penalty imposed was too severe under the circumstances and he reduced it to a one-day suspension - in so doing, the adjudicator considered that the grievor's misconduct was at the lower end of the spectrum of misconduct, that he had no disciplinary record and was a good performer.Grievance allowed in part.