Company, worker shared blame for miscommunications
During a lumber mill shutdown, a labourer sticker picker was advised to clean his area but he neglected to follow a Plaster Rock, N.B., employer’s procedure and lock out his equipment.
Andy Jenkins had worked at the Twin Rivers Paper mill since 1997 (with an absence from 2008 until 2014) when on Nov. 1, 2017, Galen Corbin, supervisor, approached Jenkins and a co-worker and told them to clean-up their work areas during a mill downtime.
Jenkins pushed the E-stop, which was an emergency-stop button, then he pulled out two of three disconnects for his equipment. He went to the top deck, then pushed debris from beneath and placed it on the belt.
Corbin saw what Jenkins was doing and immediately came up to him to say he didn’t follow the company’s lock-out tag-out (LOTO) procedure when shutting down the equipment.
LOTO called for all energy sources to be isolated and then locked with a padlock so nobody could accidentally turn on the power while another worker was inside a machine. The worker would be the only one who could unlock the padlock.
Twin Rivers Paper had been cracking down on LOTO mishaps due to a fatal accident and more scrutiny from WorkSafeNB.
The procedure mandated a one-week suspension after the first offence and termination after the second one.
After he was challenged by Corbin, Jenkins testified that under the procedures manual for his job title, it said, “general cleanup of the sticker/picker area requires no lock-out” but only that the “E-stop panel be pushed.”
Jenkins was sent home after the incident and was later terminated.
Safety supervisor Mark Fitzhebert testified that the document entitled Training Plan for Labourer Sticker Picker said: “When cleaning under top deck at sticker-picker work station, lock, tag and try is required. Sticker-picker unscrambler and top deck both need to be locked out.”
Corbin said that after the Nov. 1 incident, a sign was placed near the top deck that read: “Lock out equipment before entering.”
The union, Unifor, Local 5080, grieved the termination and said Jenkins’ previous LOTO sanction in 2015 was well outside of the sunset clause and it shouldn’t have been considered by the employer. As well, the union took umbrage with the company’s LOTO training, which only consisted of written documents.
Arbitrator Michel Doucet upheld the grievance and ordered the company to reinstate Jenkins. However, Jenkins was not entitled to compensation because he “was not forthcoming in accepting responsibility for his action.”
“(Jenkins), having had no other lock-out violation in the year prior to Nov. 1, 2017, could not be discharged. The decision to discharge (Jenkins) should therefore be declared null and void.”
And once he was back on the job, said Doucet, Jenkins should take heed of his action regarding the missed lock-out.
“(Jenkins) should not understand my decision as condoning his actions. Rather, he should see it as a chance that he is given to prove that he can be trustworthy and that he understands the importance of safety-related rules.”
Twin Rivers Paper was also admonished for its role.
“It is important that this confusion be cleared up and that the employees be informed of their safety obligations in such circumstances.”
And Jenkins should have taken his own personal safety more seriously, said Doucet.
“As to (Jenkins’) knowledge of the lock-out procedure, I note that he signed attendance lists for the various safety sessions offered by the employer. If he did not understand what his obligations were, he had the obligation to ask questions; he never did.”
Reference: Twin Rivers Paper and Unifor, Local 5080. Michel Doucet — arbitrator. Bradley Proctor, Dominic Caron for the employer. Oct. 3, 2018. 2018 CarswellNB 396
Andy Jenkins had worked at the Twin Rivers Paper mill since 1997 (with an absence from 2008 until 2014) when on Nov. 1, 2017, Galen Corbin, supervisor, approached Jenkins and a co-worker and told them to clean-up their work areas during a mill downtime.
Jenkins pushed the E-stop, which was an emergency-stop button, then he pulled out two of three disconnects for his equipment. He went to the top deck, then pushed debris from beneath and placed it on the belt.
Corbin saw what Jenkins was doing and immediately came up to him to say he didn’t follow the company’s lock-out tag-out (LOTO) procedure when shutting down the equipment.
LOTO called for all energy sources to be isolated and then locked with a padlock so nobody could accidentally turn on the power while another worker was inside a machine. The worker would be the only one who could unlock the padlock.
Twin Rivers Paper had been cracking down on LOTO mishaps due to a fatal accident and more scrutiny from WorkSafeNB.
The procedure mandated a one-week suspension after the first offence and termination after the second one.
After he was challenged by Corbin, Jenkins testified that under the procedures manual for his job title, it said, “general cleanup of the sticker/picker area requires no lock-out” but only that the “E-stop panel be pushed.”
Jenkins was sent home after the incident and was later terminated.
Safety supervisor Mark Fitzhebert testified that the document entitled Training Plan for Labourer Sticker Picker said: “When cleaning under top deck at sticker-picker work station, lock, tag and try is required. Sticker-picker unscrambler and top deck both need to be locked out.”
Corbin said that after the Nov. 1 incident, a sign was placed near the top deck that read: “Lock out equipment before entering.”
The union, Unifor, Local 5080, grieved the termination and said Jenkins’ previous LOTO sanction in 2015 was well outside of the sunset clause and it shouldn’t have been considered by the employer. As well, the union took umbrage with the company’s LOTO training, which only consisted of written documents.
Arbitrator Michel Doucet upheld the grievance and ordered the company to reinstate Jenkins. However, Jenkins was not entitled to compensation because he “was not forthcoming in accepting responsibility for his action.”
“(Jenkins), having had no other lock-out violation in the year prior to Nov. 1, 2017, could not be discharged. The decision to discharge (Jenkins) should therefore be declared null and void.”
And once he was back on the job, said Doucet, Jenkins should take heed of his action regarding the missed lock-out.
“(Jenkins) should not understand my decision as condoning his actions. Rather, he should see it as a chance that he is given to prove that he can be trustworthy and that he understands the importance of safety-related rules.”
Twin Rivers Paper was also admonished for its role.
“It is important that this confusion be cleared up and that the employees be informed of their safety obligations in such circumstances.”
And Jenkins should have taken his own personal safety more seriously, said Doucet.
“As to (Jenkins’) knowledge of the lock-out procedure, I note that he signed attendance lists for the various safety sessions offered by the employer. If he did not understand what his obligations were, he had the obligation to ask questions; he never did.”
Reference: Twin Rivers Paper and Unifor, Local 5080. Michel Doucet — arbitrator. Bradley Proctor, Dominic Caron for the employer. Oct. 3, 2018. 2018 CarswellNB 396
