Worker suffers from social anxiety disorder
An elevator mechanic in British Columbia was denied long-term disability payments by Sun Life after he became permanently disabled and was unable to work due to social anxiety disorder.
Paul Schwagly was hired in 2005 as a helper with Kone in Victoria. In 2010, he was promoted to a mechanic position.
On April 13, 2010, the company introduced a new tracking system that saw GPS-enabled phones issued to all mechanics. They were advised they would be tracked during their shifts, but if they wished to take a break, they could mark themselves as off duty and the phone’s GPS tracking would be shut off.
John Board, Victoria branch manager, received a call from a member of the public that one of the Kone mechanics was seen sitting in a vehicle for an extended period of time. On Oct. 6, 2011, Board visited a job site and watched Schwagly in a company vehicle apparently reading a book.
He was witnessed inside the vehicle for 30 minutes on one occasion and a few other times that day he was also witnessed as spending time inside the vehicle.
Richard Cook, maintenance supervisor, also witnessed the same behaviour after being alerted by Board.
Cook and Board then met with Schwagly at head office to inquire as to why he was spending so much time away from the job sites.
After the meeting, Schwagly was told a decision would be made on whether to terminate or impose another punishment, and he would be advised of that on Oct. 11, after the Thanksgiving weekend.
However, a note was received on Oct. 11 from Schwagly’s doctor, Terry Hartrick, that said he was unable to work for “medical reasons.”
Schwagly began to receive employment insurance (EI) payments, then weekly indemnity payments and hasn’t returned to work at Kone or any other company ever since.
In September 2012, he applied for long-term disability from Sun Life after all other payments were ended.
On Dec. 20, Sun Life denied the claim because “there is not a significant medical condition present that would cause restrictions and limitations that would prevent work.”
The union, International Union of Elevator Constructors, Local 82, appealed the decision on May 23, 2013, and argued because Schwagly had been diagnosed in 2005 with social anxiety disorder and he suffered from generalized anxiety, resulting in panic attacks and depression, according to two different doctors, he was totally disabled.
Alan Buchanan, a psychiatrist and clinical professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver testified that he conducted an independent medical examination on May 25, 2012, and found “Schwagly is not capable of handling the demands of this job as an elevator mechanic.”
In his report, he suggested the company could accommodate a return to work if it disabled the GPS on Schwagly’s phone as it may have been the trigger for his phobia, causing him to leave the job site and not return in October 2011.
The employer countered and said there were other companies in B.C. that did not employ GPS on company phones, so Schwagly could have worked for one of them;therefore, he was not totally disabled in his own occupation.
Arbitrator Michael Fleming upheld the grievance and ordered LTD payments to be made for the period Oct. 9, 2012, to Oct. 9, 2015.
“I accept that the definition of total disability encompasses whether Schwagly suffered from an illness which prevented him from performing the main or essential duties of his own occupation and the illness, and the resulting inability to work, was continuous," said Fleming.
All of the four companies that were covered by the welfare plan — which was fully portable and used by other companies in the industry — (Kone, Otis, ThyssenKrupp, Schindler) use GPS so Schwagly would “not have been able to return to work with any of them,” said Fleming.
“GPS was a trigger or, put another way, a significant causal factor triggering Schwagly’s social anxiety disorder which resulted in his total disability from his own occupation as an elevator mechanic at Kone,” said Fleming.
Reference: Kone and International Union of Elevator Constructors, Local 82. Michael Fleming— arbitrator. Maggie Campbell, Mike Hamata for the employer. Theo Arsenault, Ben Arsenault for the employee. Aug. 4, 2017.
