The employer skipped one step before firing, and a tribunal made it pay
A positive cannabis test was enough for one safety-sensitive employer to fire an assistant operator the same day. It was not enough, a labour tribunal has now confirmed, to prove the company had just cause for the dismissal.
In a decision dated July 22, 2026, Vice-Chairperson Patricia Warwick of the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board dismissed GFL Environmental Inc.'s appeal of a wage assessment issued in the worker's favour by the Director of Employment Standards. The ruling confirmed an earlier adjudicator's finding and left GFL owing $5,958.19 in wages tied to the notice period.
The worker had been employed by GFL as an assistant operator since June 2019, earning $27.57 an hour. His employment ended on February 14, 2025, the same day he took a drug test required under the company's drug and alcohol policy. The test came back positive for cannabis, and GFL treated the result as a violation of the policy and terminated him.
Under GFL's drug and alcohol policy, an employee who tests positive for an illicit drug consumed within 24 hours of starting work would be terminated. The worker had been tested seven times before, and although two of those earlier tests were positive for cannabis, the policy had not been applied because the consumption was found to have fallen outside the 24-hour window.
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