Safety Violations Get 37-Year Employee Fired For Cause

We don't often hear of 37-year employees being fired for just cause.  An arbitrator has recently upheld the dismissal of a long-service unionized employee for safety violations.

The employer was a recycler of lead, and thus had important safety rules which included the use of respirators.  The employer was required, by the Occupational Health and Safety Act, to monitor employee blood levels for lead.

The employee had 7 disciplines on record in the past year, including a recent 25-day suspension, some of which were for safety violations.  The arbitrator referred to the employee's "year-long journey of disciplinary misadventure" that ended with two safety-breach "culminating incidents" that occurred on successive days.