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Employee: Female, age 33

Job Title – Registered Nurse

Rate of Pay - $44/hr

Seniority – 7 years

Employee Record – Some discipline for activism in the anti-masking movement and for attending large, outdoor protests, unmasked. The Union has filed grievances for the discipline but the grievances are still unresolved

Nature of new grievance – Improper Discharge

The employer operates a chain of nursing homes across Canada. At this location in a small Ontario town, there are 125 residents. Since last March, 73 residents have contracted Covid 19 and there have been 27 deaths.


Particulars in this case:

The Nursing Home has a complex work schedule in order to provide adequate staff coverage at all times.
In the week of Jan 3, the grievor was scheduled off for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Her first scheduled work day was Thursday Jan 7. She reported for work for her shift on Thursday and on Friday.

On Friday, the Administrator learned that the employee had participated in the riot at the US Capitol on Jan 6. She had been seen on TV.

When confronted with this the employee acknowledged that she had been at the riot. The Nursing Home fired her immediately.


The Union filed a grievance alleging improper discharge. Will the grievance succeed?

What grounds did they give for terminating her?

the first thing that comes to mind is that she should be in a 14-day quarantine after returning to Canada from the United States. That is a Canada wide public health order.

I would suggest it succeeds.

Yes. She was fired for failing to quarantine and for exposing residents and staff to possible infection..

She has also been charged under Ontario law for failing to quarantine and could face a $1000. fine.

Turkeytop wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 14, 2021 8:50 pm

Yes. She was fired for failing to quarantine and for exposing residents and staff to possible infection..

She has also been charged under Ontario law for failing to quarantine and could face a $1000. fine.

Goodbye. They, and the families of the people who died and contracted should also file civil charges

Wow - how awful would it be to be the union rep and have to defend her.

See ya!

In this case, the employer is relying upon a legal principle known as "The Doctrine of Culminating Incident.'.

The principle is that if an employee already has a disciplinary record, the employer can, at some point, say "that's it. We've had enough. You're fired.

An arbitrator will uphold the employer's right to fire such an employee. The only qualifying criteria is that the employer must prove that the employee is guilty of committing the culminating incident and that the infraction is worthy of some discipline.
Spitting on the sidewalk would not be a culminating incident but if what the employee did would normally attract some discipline, the employer can escalate the discipline to a discharge.

There are still the two previous disciplinary matters the parties haven't yet dealt with. If I was handling this case for the Union, I'd try to get rid of those. Without them, the employer doesn't have grounds for culminating incident.

I doesn't mean the grievor would get away with what she did. She might even still be fired. But without the prior discipline, the Union might convince the arbitrator to reduce the discharge to a period of suspension.

Not being familiar with Canadian laws at all, three questions:

- Could/would the crown take away her nursing license if convicted?
- Can the crown suspend her nursing license while she awaits trial?
- Would the suspension and/or termination of her nursing license be grounds for the employer to terminate her without the union being required to represent her?

I’m gonna say it doesn’t succeed. That sounds like an awfully deep hole she has dug herself.

Not seeing the contract, I'm guessing there is a clause about not performing illegal activity on Company property. By violating the providential law regarding 14-day quarantine when she came into work, she did so illegally and is subject to being fired.

Ex-employee will not be coming back.

Bryce wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 14, 2021 8:54 pm

Turkeytop wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 14, 2021 8:50 pm

Yes. She was fired for failing to quarantine and for exposing residents and staff to possible infection..

She has also been charged under Ontario law for failing to quarantine and could face a $1000. fine.

Goodbye. They, and the families of the people who died and contracted should also file civil charges

Agreed.

Also, $44 an hour. How cold is the Detroit River this year?

Is there a statute of limitation regarding resolution of the prior infractions. Seems to me they would have to resolve those first in order to establish a pattern of repeated offenses. If it's determined that she was aware of company policy and continued to break the rules without regard, the employer would be within their rights to fire her. Her only way out would be if the prior offenses weren't dealt with in a timely manner with regard to the contract (whatever it says about that).

My questions is, how did she manage to cross the border under the current travel restrictions? The trip to DC was obviously not work-related, and it's unclear whether she owns property in the States.

Answers to questions

The Nursing profession in Ontario is self regulating. They all belong to a professional organization, The Ontario College of Nurses. The organization is responsible for the licensing of nurses.

There are time limits to file a grievance and in all cases the time limits were met.

There are also time limits for moving a grievance along but in most workplaces the parties often waive the limits.

There is one big loophole in the Canada / US travel restrictions. They only apply to crossing by land. Not by air or water.

Turkeytop wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 15, 2021 9:47 am

Answers to questions
There is one big loophole in the Canada / US travel restrictions. They only apply to crossing by land. Not by air or water.

Ahh. So I assume a bridge or tunnel would qualify as a land crossing?

Here's an article about this:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/beta.cp24. ... 62783.html