A long-time custodian in a southwestern Ontario school should have received a promotion but didn’t. An arbitrator ruled that a poor interview should not have prevented Jodi Dodman from securing the job.
In October 2015, the Lambton Kent District School Board posted a notice looking for a custodian 3 (C3), which would have meant a promotion for Dodman, who was working as a custodian 2 (C2).
She had been employed with the board since 2005, first as a casual worker and eventually becoming a full-time custodian at Chatham-Kent Secondary School in 2010.
On Nov. 5, 2015, Dodman was interviewed for the C3 position by supervisors Rick Tanner, and Jim Huff, her immediate supervisor.
The interview consisted of eight questions about the candidate’s background and work history, with probing questions about what the worker had done in the past in certain situations.
During one of the answers, Dodman used the phrase “couldn’t lollygag” during a particular work incident, but one of the interviewers wrote down that she said my “usual lollygag,” which could be construed as detrimental to the candidate.
She also used the words “boring” and “mind-numbing” to describe working conditions.
These words were also written in the interview notes.
She also indicated that she had been trained on the use of various floor cleaning machines, which was a requirement of the new job. One of the sessions was witnessed by Huff.
Dodman’s resumé indicated that she had worked at various times for the board as a C3 as well as a custodian 1 — which was even higher than C3 — for about three months.
Dodman was scored on her answers to the questions on a five-point scale, with five indicating the person “greatly exceeds requirements.” The mid-range of three meant “fully meets requirements,” and was the level a candidate had to reach to win the new job.
Dodman was notified via email about 36 minutes after the interview started that she would not win the promotion.
Tanner’s assessment of Dodman indicated he didn’t think that she was a star performer. “(It) seems that she was not sure of the job - mind numbing and boring job - lollygag - doing the job - poor interview,” he wrote on his notes.
He also said they didn’t talk about Dodman’s experience with the various machines during the interview. Tanner said he asked Huff about the extent of her experience.
Huff’s comments on his notes indicated Dodman was “poor interview — said that she lollygagged and she felt her job was mind-numbing (and) boring.”
The two interviewers did not use the collective agreement standard in reaching their decision, according to arbitrator Howard Snow.
“I have been critical of the work of the two interviewers. They made a number of errors. But I do not think they bear full responsibility for all the employer’s mistakes," said Snow.
The collective agreement spelled out the criteria for a worker to be eligible for promotion. It stated that the worker must achieve a minimum score of three or “fully meets requirements,” to get the promotion.
Snow rescored Dodman’s responses and came up with an average score of 3.25.
Tanner and Huff both gave Dodman a two in each category.
But the 3.25 scored, combined with her seniority over the other job candidate, should have given Dodman the edge.
“I find the employer violated the collective agreement when it concluded the grievor did not meet the threshold standard in the collective agreement,” said Snow.
As for Dodman’s ill-advised choice of words during the interview, it was given little credence.
“The grievor’s use in the interview of the words ‘lollygag’, ‘boring’ and ‘mind-numbing’ has little if any impact on the question of whether the grievor had the necessary skill and ability to do the posted C3 job,” said Snow.
“I direct the employer to appoint the grievor to the disputed position effective Nov. 9, 2015, along with back pay and any other compensation.”
Reference: Lambton Kent District School Board and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 1238. Howard Snow — arbitrator. Dianne Jozefacki for the employer. Phillip Hunt for the employee. Aug. 12, 2016.
