Zero-Tolerance "Safety Absolute" Upheld: One Tie-Off Violation Gets Employee Fired For Cause

Zero-tolerance safety rules, often called "Life Saving Rules", "Cardinal Safety Rules" or "Safety Absolutes", are becoming more common in industry. An arbitrator has now upheld the firing of a unionized employee for one violation of a tie-off rule found in "Safety Absolutes", even though the violation was for a brief period of time.

We have previously posted on other cases involving such zero-tolerance safety rules. In some cases, courts and arbitrators have held that the violation of the safety rule is just cause for dismissal, and in other cases not.

The employee, a scaffolder for a construction firm in Newfoundland, was found standing on a steel deck of a scaffold at a height of about 7′ 2″, and was reaching up to a height of about 12 feet and leaning out over the unguarded end of the deck.