Worker who picked fight breached code of conduct

The dismissal of an Ontario worker who tried to pick a fight over potential cheating on a driver’s test has been upheld by an arbitrator.

Serco Canada operates driver test centres across Ontario under agreement with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, administering tests and other services associated with drivers’ licences. As part of the agreement, the ministry imposes standards, policy requirements and performance indicators that Serco must follow.

Customer service agents (CSAs) for Serco receive mandatory training on customer care skills, including decreasing customer complaints and creating a safe work environment.

CSAs must follow a code of ethics, treat everyone with respect and dignity and avoid confrontation. There are also protocols for dealing with customers who violate testing rules such as using cellphones or other aides.

On June 28, 2019, a worker employed as a CSA saw a customer in the test room on his cellphone. She told the customer he couldn’t have it in the room, but the customer said it was his work phone and he couldn’t turn it off. The worker told him to remove his phone from the desk and the customer called her an expletive, threatened her and invited her to come outside.

The CSA then slapped him on the back of the shoulder, removed her name tag, and told the customer she was going to get changed and meet him outside.

At that point, another Serco employee entered and asked the customer to leave the room. The employee noted that the worker was verbally aggressive and the customer said he was rude to her, but he asked her to go outside because she hit him. The customer added: “I would never have gone outside because she is a woman.”

Serco looked into the incident and talked to other employees who had witnessed it. One agreed that the customer had called the worker an expletive and threatened her and the CSA “smacked his left shoulder.” Two other employees corroborated the customer’s threat to fight and the worker’s slap.

Serco had video surveillance footage showing the worker engaging in a verbal altercation with the customer and then striking the customer on his left shoulder with her open right hand. She then walked away from him and removed her name tag.

Serco interviewed the worker and she admitted that she had handled the situation wrong, but also felt that she shouldn’t be disciplined because she had felt scared and “it was my duty to defend myself.”

On July 10, Serco terminated the worker’s employment for physically assaulting a customer, breaching the code of conduct, and putting the company at risk of violating its agreement with the Ministry of Transportation.

The worker — who had two years of service and was 52 years old — filed a grievance, claiming Serco violated the collective agreement’s requirement of just cause for dismissal.

The union argued that while the worker had a “bad reaction,” she didn’t take things further and was remorseful. The union also pointed out that the worker had been a “good employee” with a clear disciplinary record.

The arbitrator found that the surveillance footage and witness reports indicated that she had physically assaulted a customer who hadn’t provoked her other than breaking the rule against cellphones.

Instead of respectfully approaching the customer and trying to de-escalate the situation as per procedure, she was aggressive and confrontational, said the arbitrator.

The arbitrator also found that the worker tried to justify her behaviour in the interview and report rather than expressing remorse — although her conduct had compromised the safety of herself, the customer, coworkers and other customers as well as damaged Serco’s reputation in the eyes of customers and the ministry.

The arbitrator dismissed the grievance and upheld the termination.