OK to Discipline Custodian for Bullying His Supervisors

In a bit of a role reversal, a maintenance employee was suspended 1 days and ordered to take an anger management course as a result of bullying and harassing his supervisors. The union grieved, citing the employee’s 40-year discipline-free record, but the BC arbitrator upheld the discipline. The evidence showed that there were 3 incidents in which the employee ‘just went off’ on school staff, regaling them with ‘f bombs’ and other profane language. Moreover, the school tried to show kindness to its long-standing custodian by setting the suspension at 1, rather than the recommended 3 days [Board of School Trustees of School District No. 35 (Langley) v Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 1851, 2021 CanLII 87583 (BC LA), September 15, 2021].