Arbitrator Reinstates Worker Fired for Fighting with Co-Worker

All agreed that a steel worker deserved to be disciplined for getting into a physical altercation with a co-worker on the shop room floor. The question was whether the incident should cost him his job. The Alberta arbitrator said no and reduced the penalty to a 5-day suspension, the same discipline the other worker in the fight got. In addition to finding the fired employee’s story to be more credible than that of his antagonist, the arbitrator noted that the former sensed that the long-running confrontation was about to get nasty and repeatedly asked management to intervene. But his pleas fell on deaf ears [Prudential Steel (Tenaris) v United Steelworkers Local 7226, 2021 CanLII 85311 (AB GAA), September 7, 2021].