Worker stuck to his guns throughout disciplinary, arbitration processes

An Ontario arbitrator has upheld the progressive discipline and the dismissal of a worker who refused to fully participate in his employer’s safety coaching process and acted insubordinately towards management in disciplinary meetings.

Waste Management Canada (WM) is a Calgary-based waste disposal company that operates across Canada. The worker was employed with WM in Hamilton, Ont., since 1997, mainly as a front-end driver. He drove a truck that collected garbage bins in residential areas.

WM had several safety initiatives in place, including a “drivecam” system” that was installed in all waste collection trucks in 2018. The system featured an outward-facing camera and an inward-facing camera that was activated by artificial intelligence when certain events – such as sudden braking, rolling through a stop sign, the driver taking his hands of the steering wheel, or the driver talking on a cellphone – were detected. When activated, the cameras recorded 12-second video clips consisting of eight seconds before and four seconds the event.

When the “drivecam” system was activated, the footage was sent to a third-party company. This company reviewed the footage to determine if there was a rule violation and, if so, it sent the footage to WM. WM would then review the footage with the driver as a coaching tool. Review sessions were considered coaching and weren’t disciplinary, as their goal was to identify and...

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