Safety insensitive staffer reinstated

After he was fired for dangerous work on the line of a lumber mill, Mike Christensen was given a second chance and reinstated by an arbitrator.

At West Fraser Mills, headquartered in Vancouver, Christensen had worked as a planer mill operator for three years before he was fired.

As part of his regular duties, Christensen was responsible for loading and feeding slabs of lumber on to the feeder belt. Only regular-sized lumber in good condition should be passed through the operator. The planer mill feeder’s position is also a dangerous one. There is the risk of injury to both the planer feeder and other employees if he is not attentive, as lumber constantly moves past the worker and is accelerated at high speeds.

With this in mind, West Fraser Mills let Christensen go after a December 2013 incident which saw an irregular piece of lumber being fed through — it consequently spit out of the feeder.

According to Christensen’s supervisors, they witnessed him pick up a small piece of broken board from the floor and place it on the chains moving in front of him. At the time there was no other lumber moving because of jam at the tilt hoist, a problem which was out of Christensen’s control. As the small chunk of lumber moved past the rollers, Christensen jumped back to protect himself.

After a meeting with his managers, he was let go for breaching safety protocol. As the employer saw it, there was a significant hazard as the lumber did not have sufficient length to pass the various pressure points in the rollers – a small chunk, therefore, could fly out of control, creating shrapnel that could seriously injure someone. Not to mention the equipment could have been seriously damaged.

The United Steelworkers Local I-425 filed a grievance on Christensen’s behalf. While Christensen admitted to putting the irregular piece of lumber on the belt, and that it was wrong, he denied any attempt to let it enter the rollers. His intention instead was to walk down the length of the chain and remove the piece before it reached the danger zone. However, realizing it was too late to do so, he jumped back to protect himself.

There is a common practice at the mill that, if the operator has a broken piece of lumber, they will place it on top of the moving lumber at an angle, so that it proceeds downstream where the planer feeder will remove and discard it.

As well, Christensen had suffered an injury on the job, about two weeks prior, when he was knocked down by a broken piece of wood flying by. He jumped back this time, he said, because he was nervous and taking extra precaution.

The issue at hand is whether Christensen, as the employer argued, deliberately tried to sabotage the workplace, or if he, as the union argued, did so unintentionally.

"Either way, Christensen’s conduct created a very serious hazard to himself and others – a hazard he was well aware of," said arbitrator Gabriel Somjen.

However, Somjen ordered Christensen be reinstated – without any compensation for lost wages or benefits. Essentially, the incident was a seven-month suspension.

Discharge was excessive, he continued, and the employer’s argument that Christensen’s actions were "sabotage" was not factually correct.

"There are other mitigating circumstances — the fact that no one was injured, nor was there any damage to equipment; his acceptance of responsibility for misconduct; and his willingness to return to work even without compensation — these are factors in favour of a lesser penalty," Somjen said, adding that, "Christensen is young and I expect that he is capable of performing his work diligently and safely and that he will not engage in unsafe conduct in the future.

Reference: West Fraser Mills and the United Steelworkers Local I-425. Gabriel Somjen — arbitrator. Donald Jordan for the employer, Colin Gusikoski for the union. July 9, 2014.