Millwright reinstated after admitting theft

A worker will be reinstated after admitting to the theft of two wooden spools, an arbitrator has decided.

The grievor, Harry Dejong, admitted to stealing the two 36-inch empty wooden spools used for holding cable from Lanxess, a large synthetic rubber production operation in Sarnia, Ont., where he worked as a maintenance millwright.

As a result, he was dismissed in January 2015.

Dejong’s union, Unifor Local 914, filed a grievance on his behalf.

While Unifor believed Dejong’s action was wrong and therefore deserving of some discipline, it argued termination was disproportionately harsh.

For one, Dejong — who had joined the company at 19 — had more than 45 years of service and was 64 years old when he was fired.

Dejong also testified he did not think the empty spools were of any use or value to the company, and were destined for scrap. The employee made a serious mistake, but it was a singular incident.

As such, the union requested Dejong be reinstated with full redress for all monies lost.

The company, on the other hand, said the dismissal of a long-serving employee is always a difficult one for all parties involved, but that fact alone did not justify a reduced sentence.

"The very long service of an employee has never been accepted as a proper reason alone for reducing the penalty of discharge which is otherwise prima facie warranted in all cases of theft because such conduct strikes at the very heart of the employment relationship that is rooted in a notion of trust," counsel for the company argued.

The company said it felt it could no longer trust its employee.

Arbitrator makes decision

In making his decision, arbitrator Gordon Luborsky sought to determine whether termination was justified, given all mitigating circumstances.

He decided to side with the union and allow the grievance, though in part only.

"Given the company’s understandable misgivings about the grievor’s ability to work overtime assignments in the evenings or nights when there is limited supervisory presence, it is just and reasonable to make the grievor’s reinstatement conditional," he said.

Therefore, for a reasonable amount of time, the company would have the unilateral right to schedule the grievor on the day shift only, or to bypass Dejong for overtime opportunities outside the day shift, when there would be minimal supervision.

Luborsky said those conditions would apply for a period of one year following the date of reinstatement.

Dejong was reinstated without compensation but without loss of bargaining unit seniority.