Hotel Fired Maintenance Manager for Refusing to Work Without PPE

The maintenance manager for a hotel asked the general manager for a fall protection harness so he could work on a wall from a scaffold. The general manager refused. An MOL inspector ordered the hotel to hire a suitable contractor to repair the wall as it was too dangerous for the maintenance department. The general manager kept pressuring the maintenance manager to do it himself, but he refused and was then fired. The hotel claimed he was fired because he wasn’t skilled enough for the position. However, the Labour Relations Board found that there was ‘an absolute dearth of written or verbal evidence’ of the maintenance manager’s lack of skills. It was clear he was fired as a reprisal for exercising his right to refuse unsafe work [Sean Rapke v. Sylvanacre Properties Limited o/a Four Points Sheraton, [2014] CanLII 75962 (ON LRB), Dec. 8, 2014].