Grievance Case: Absenteeism at Weber Aircraft

Grievance Case: Absenteeism at Weber Aircraft

This case addresses rights (or grievance) arbitration – arbitration that concerns alleged violations of the collective agreement.

It involves the dismissal of Jones on June 17th, 2012 from his position as an employee at Weber Aircraft. Jones filed a grievance alleging unjust dismissal. Weber Aircraft's collective agreement contains a no-fault attendance policy that specifics that 80 hours of absences, an employee is subject to discharge. Vacation time, approved medical leaves, special situation absences, or holidays are not counted against an employee. The collective agreement also specifies that an employee is to be notified when 64 of the allowed 80 hours of absence are used. The company did do its job by warning Jones of such act but could have made a wiser decision regarding this issue.

Before making my final decision as an arbitrator I went through the key arbitration issues. Within the culpable behaviour elements Jones fall under the section where the grievor was capable of performing what was required of him or her but because of frequent absences due to his health wasn't able to perform such duty. For the grievor's conduct to be considered the management representative will need to show those three behaviours. At this point, the management cannot demonstrate all three elements of culpability, therefore the employee is considered nonculpable. In this case, Jones who have been approved for many medical leaves was clearly aware of what was required of him or here but wasn't capable of performing what was required of him because of his injury. In this case, his conduct would not make him culpable. It is important as an arbitrator to stress that if management cannot provide evidence to support all three culpability elements, then the employee is nonculpable.

There were three questions I examined regarding the discharge case before making my final decision: 1. Did management have reasonable grounds to impose some form of

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