Worker found sleeping in train engine after long shift
An Ontario locomotive engineer’s termination for violating railway rules on speeding and sleeping has been upheld.
The locomotive engineer worked for Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) in London, Ont. Over the years, he assembled a disciplinary record adding up to 95 career demerits. In December 2012, he was dismissed for violating one of CP’s cardinal rules — failing to ensure his train was operated in a “safe and controlled manner" — after he exceeded the maximum permissible speed on multiple occasions and failed to stop before moving over two public crossings at grade. His misconduct was deemed “gross negligence,” but he was reinstated in a settlement.
The employee was later suspended for 15 days for running through a switch.
On June 24, 2015, the employee and his crew were told to stop what they were doing and go to a train yard near Cambridge, Ont. Because of the short notice, they were late to achieve their target and the trainmaster didn’t make alternate arrangements for their lunch break as stipulated in the collective agreement. The crew worked through their lunch break until they completed the assignment seven hours after the start of their shift.
About 25 minutes after the crew returned to home base, two supervisors approached the employee’s locomotive, which was shut down and not moving. They saw the employee lying back in the conductor’s seat with his legs and feet stretched over a seat. He was wearing safety glasses and his hooded sweatshirt was covering his face.
Both supervisors confirmed the employee was sleeping, then opened the door and called his name twice before he woke up.
The employee was told he was violating a CP general rule that prohibited employees from engaging in “non-railway activities which may in any way distract their attention from the full performance of their duties” while involved in train movement or track switches. The employee explained that he was “on duty but not performing work, when I was relaxing on my break.”
Following this incident, CP examined the locomotive’s black box to determine the employee’s running speeds and locations during his previous two shifts. The investigation found the employee had exceeded the 10 mph authorized speed for the area — which featured residential subdivisions — nine times, travelling between 13.6 and 17.2 mph. Three of these occasions constituted “uncontrolled movement” — five mph above permissible speed — and the emergency brake was never applied as required.
The employee wasn’t able to explain his speeding, other than it happened in a rural area with hills and valleys that affected the speed. He claimed he was operating the train in a safe manner, “keeping in mind fuel conservation and wear and tear on equipment.”
CP dismissed the worker for speeding and sleeping on the job. The union grieved the dismissal, arguing CP had “thrown the book” at the worker and used “every possible rule violation” as a reason to dismiss him.
