Railway worker dismissed for wasting time, falsifying records

An arbitrator has denied reinstatement to a Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) employee in British Columbia who was fired after falsifying inspection records and misreporting his time worked.

Darren Miller was a signal and communications maintainer for CPR. On March 3, 2020, the assistant director of signal and communications operations was conducting a safety walkabout in the area around Salmon Arm, B.C. He searched the GPS tracker for employee vehicles and saw that Miller’s truck was in the parking lot of the local Walmart, so he drove there. Miller told him that he was shopping for a printer for work, but when asked if he had a purchasing card, he replied that he was just “checking out prices” so he could recommend one.

The assistant director asked him what work he had done so far that day. Miller said he had made a repair, but he was wearing running shoes instead of his safety boots. The assistant director saw that the work boots in the truck were clean and not appropriate for the work Miller was doing that day.

On March 6, the assistant director checked up on Miller and saw that he hadn’t started until 7:22 a.m., although his start time was supposed to be 6 a.m. The GPS indicated that Miller had gone to a coffee shop and then drove around, so the assistant director met him at a worksite at 11:30 a.m. Miller claimed he had started at 6:30 a.m., but the assistant director told him that his truck told a different story and sent him home with pay.

CPR looked into Miller’s work and found that on March 3, his truck had spent almost 56 minutes at his residence, 11 minutes at Walmart, and additional time at Canadian Tire and Staples. After his conversation with the assistant director, Miller went back home for another 55 minutes. He hadn’t done the repair he had mentioned to the assistant director and hadn’t reported the time he spent not working to his manager. He had submitted time claims for full days on both March 3 and March 6.

CPR also learned that on three different occasions since late February, Miller had failed to conduct regulatory tests that he had reported as completed.

Miller explained that on March 3, his girlfriend’s daughter was sick and he ran some errands because his girlfriend didn’t want to leave her. However, he hadn’t mentioned that to the assistant director. He also said that he had started late on March 6 because he had spent the night attending to the sick child, and he drove around because it helped clear his head.

Miller also acknowledged not performing the regulatory tests, but he said for one of them where he had run out of time he had done appropriate adjustments previously to consider it safe.

CPR terminated Miller’s employment for falsely claiming a full day’s pay on March 3 and 6 and falsifying inspection records on three occasions. The union argued that dismissal was excessive, as circumstances in his life were beyond his control and Miller took responsibility for his misconduct.

The arbitrator found that Miller misappropriated time while knowing it was wrong. His explanations weren’t sufficient to justify his actions or the fact that he didn’t notify his manager, the arbitrator said.

The arbitrator also found that falsifying inspection records was serious, as “the railways are a highly regulated industry with a heightened awareness and focus both on safety standards as well as compliance with the consequential requirements of regulatory reporting.” Miller’s job had little supervision in a safety-sensitive environment, so it required a “burden of responsibility and trust” that he breached, said the arbitrator.

The arbitrator determined that Miller demonstrated “a persistent dishonesty over a two-month period” that made it difficult to reinstate him. The grievance was dismissed.