Employee refused to admit mistake was made
Mark Veley worked for Invista Canada in Kingston, Ont., for 34 years in the polymer division mixing batches of chemicals that eventually became nylon filaments that went into automobile air bags. He gained his polymer technician 3 classification, which was one of the highest paid in the bargaining unit.
On May 21, 2015, Veley incorrectly made what is known as a “salt batch” of five chemicals that had to be measured and weighed precisely or the chemical composition would become downgraded and unsuitable to use.
Veley’s supervisor that day was Jeff Papi, who discovered the error that shift and further investigated the cause. He determined the error began during Veley’s shift and the bad batch ended up travelling through the processing system for six hours. Since the error originated with the first batch, it potentially contaminated all following batches.
Papi advised Veley of his findings, but Veley said he was sure he followed the standard operating procedures and he always measured twice to ensure accuracy.
When the company made the decision to suspend Veley for one day, it argued this was the third time an error was made by him that resulted in company downtime: One on Dec. 14, 2014, resulted in “20 hours of off standard product.” It said Veley was not intentionally making errors but he needed to “to bring the appropriate level of care and attention to executing his work.”
Veley testified he began his double-measuring routine after he previously missed adding potassium bicarbonate, which resulted in a bad batch.
The Kingston Independent Nylon Workers’ Union said Veley’s error on May 21 may have been due to a contaminated batch of potassium bicarbonate that went into the first batch, but Papi countered and said other batches included material from that barrel and showed no bad readings.
Again, Veley insisted there was “no chance” he made an error.
The union argued Papi didn’t properly test the chemical composition to confirm Veley added incorrect amounts. Instead, Papi found anomalies with the differential pressure reading that he used to indicate faulty measurements on Veley’s part.
Arbitrator Derek Rogers agreed with the company’s arguments about who was at fault on May 21. “I am satisfied that the differential pressure shift occurred and that it was due to the introduction of a bad batch made up by (Veley). I am also satisfied that the concern was of sufficient magnitude or significance to warrant a decision to downgrade the resultant product and not to release it for integration in automotive air bags.”
The argument that the potassium bicarbonate was contaminated was also dismissed by Rogers.
“There was no evidence to support the theory that the remnants of a barrel of potassium bicarbonate was in some way responsible for the differential pressure shift that was experienced for several hours on the grievor’s shift,” he said. “Veley did not challenge the employer’s position that the same potassium bicarbonate had produced yarn with no quality concern before the grievor mixed his first batch.”
Veley’s previous history was one of the determining factors for Rogers to uphold the suspension and dismiss the grievance.
“Veley has had a documented history of committing unintentional mistakes. He had received a written warning that referred to two instances of his engaging in process errors and cautioned him about the need to devote care and attention to the performance of his duties,” said Rogers.
Reference: Invista Canada, Kingston Site, and Kingston Independent Nylon Workers’ Union. Derek Rogers — arbitrator. Robert Little for the employer. Ernie Schirru for the employee. Dec. 7, 2016.
