FPSLREB Decisions

Suspension during disciplinary investigation - Suspension (20 days) - Damage to material - Insults and threats towards a supervisor - Stress and fatigue - Human Rights - Jurisdiction - the grievor was a maintenance employee at a correctional centre - he supervised inmates' work - for some time, he had been more tense than usual, suffering from stress and fatigue - when returning late from a lunch where he had consumed alcohol he had an altercation with a supervisor whom he threatened to kill and damaged some equipment - the incidents took place in the presence of co-workers and inmates - at the time, the grievor was suffering from a subsequently diagnosed depression - he did not inform the employer - the employer suspended the grievor for the duration of the disciplinary investigation - the grievor acknowledged his actions and expressed his regret - the employer imposed a 20-day suspension on the grievor (including the suspension during the investigation) - the grievor filed a grievance against each of the two suspensions - at the outset of the hearing, he argued that the suspensions constituted discrimination on the basis of an impairment and asked for the hearing to be recessed until a complaint that he intended to file with the Canadian Human Rights Commission had been settled - the employer objected that the adjudicator lacked the jurisdiction to grant an adjournment for this reason - the adjudicator found that the grievor had not established that the central issue of the grievance was a human rights matter and held that he did have the jurisdiction to decide the grievances - the employer pleaded that he had taken the grievor's circumstances into account and that the 20-day suspension was justified - the grievor responded that recourse to a disciplinary procedure in the case of an employee suffering from depression was an act of discrimination on the basis of an impairment - the adjudicator found that the grievor's misconduct had been established, that the latter was aware of the seriousness of his actions and of their consequences and that the employer had taken the grievor's circumstances into account in imposing the 20-day suspension. Grievances denied. Cases cited:Canada (Attorney General) v. Boutilier, [1999] 1 F.C. 459 (T.D.); Canada (Attorney General) v. Boutilier, [2000] 3 F.C. 27 (C.A.); Corporation of the City of London and Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 101 (2001), 101 L.A.C. (4th) 411.