Select December 2005 Decisions

P.R. Foods Inc. –and- United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1518, BCLRB No. B331/2005

In a previous decision (BCLRB No. B223/2005), the Board had found that an employee had been terminated without proper cause during the statutory freeze period. The Board ordered the employee reinstated with back pay. However, the Board also found that the employee in question was owed some discipline. Accordingly, it left the quantum of discipline to the Employer to decide. The parties could not agree on a proper quantum, and the matter was remitted to the same panel.

The Employer argued that it and the employee were equally responsible for the events leading up to the termination (since the employee had committed some culpable acts, and the Employer had inadequately investigated those acts), so the Board should “split the difference” and find that the employee was owed back pay for half of the time period at issue. The Union argued that such an approach was not the way that the Board and arbitrators have decided the severity of discipline for employees. Instead, the Union argued that the Board must consider all of the circumstances and decide what punishment this particular employee deserved in light of his actions.

The Board agreed with the Union, and found that, taking into account the circumstances of the employee’s actions, a one week suspension was appropriate. The Board accordingly ordered that the suspension be served notionally, and that damages accrue for the remainder of the time period at issue

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