Smoking and Trafficking in Pot at Work Justifies Termination

A city employee was arrested at work for possession of and trafficking in marijuana. During the employer investigation, he admitted to regularly smoking pot at work and using the city truck to drive to the spot where he bought the pot. But he claimed he was an addict. The city fired him anyway and the arbitrator upheld the decision. The employee didn’t prove he had a drug addiction. And even if he had, buying drugs with the city’s equipment and doing his job while he was high endangered co-workers and the public and warranted termination [City of Ottawa v. Ottawa-Carleton Public Employees Union, Local 503 (Lavoie Grievance), [2011] O.L.A.A. No. 582, Dec. 7, 2011].