Two workers could have been 'seriously injured or worse': Employer
When a lead-melting furnace reached critically high temperatures, written procedures at Teck Metal’s Trail, B.C., plant called for an emergency tap (E-tap) to allow the slag to cool and mitigate any further danger.
But on Feb. 15, 2017, furnace operator Kevin Watson failed to initiate an E-tap that could have been potentially deadly for two other co-workers.
“As a result of your failure to follow the procedures, you placed at least two of your co-workers in an extremely unsafe situation. This procedure was developed as a result of previous explosions. Had there been an explosion in this situation, your co-workers could have been seriously injured or worse,” said a letter of termination given to Watson on March 1.
In 2013, an explosion happened in the same area and an employee was seriously injured. This prompted Teck Metal to write specific instructions for dealing safely with overheated slag.
During the day in question, Watson worked as the process control operator at a flash furnace smelting lead ore.
Once the ore was melted at 1,400 C, it was drained into a large vat.
At 2:04 p.m., a breakout happened and shift engineer Ken Tichauer went to help assist two other colleagues on managing the flow.
At 2:15 p.m., Tichauer told Watson via radio “they couldn’t get it shut off.”
At 2:18 p.m., Chris Kormandy, production superintendent, noticed something wrong and phoned Watson to see why he wasn’t running an E-tap.
Eventually, the crisis was averted but after the shift, employees wrote notes about any issues faced. “I didn’t get the feeling Kevin felt this was an emergency tap,” wrote Kormandy.
On Feb. 22, a meeting was held so Watson could be questioned about his actions.
During the meeting, Watson said he was in the process of starting an E-tap when questioned by Kormandy.
But later that day, he wrote an email further explaining his actions. Watson claimed he was trying to give the other workers the chance to stem the excess flow before initiating the E-tap.
When Watson was terminated, he was under the company’s discipline program which placed him in step four. He was told any further safety-related discipline could result in his termination.
The union, United Steelworkers, grieved the dismissal and argued termination was excessive.
Arbitrator David McPhillips disagreed and upheld the firing.
“There should have been no real confusion on Watson’s part with respect to the proper procedure to be followed. Even if the procedures somehow did apply and two attempts at shutting off the breakout could have been justified, it was abundantly clear that by 2:15, those attempts had failed and an E-tap should have been commenced at that point," said McPhillips.
The explanatory email sent after the meeting was a further indicator that Watson didn’t believe his actions was wrong, according to McPhillips.
“To repeat Kormandy’s observation, it does not appear that Watson has truly ‘taken ownership’ of the problem. While he has admitted he made a ‘mistake’, he has repeatedly attempted to downplay its significance rather than explicitly and unequivocally acknowledging that he exercised very bad judgment on the day in question.”
Watson also felt the company should bear some of the responsibility for how the incident was managed, said McPhillips.
“Watson’s response in cross-examination about his knowledge of the proper procedures to be followed was that he had ‘had training, if you can call it that’ and that is very problematic. This appears to be another, and very unfair, attempt to deflect responsibility, this time to management’s alleged poor efforts in explaining to him the newly updated procedure. (It should be noted there is absolutely no evidence to support that assertion on his part.)”
Reference: Teck Metal and United Steelworkers, Local 480. David McPhillips — arbitrator. David McDonald for the employer. Craig Bavis for the employee. May 17, 2017.
