DRUG ADDICTION NOT AN AUTOMATIC FIRING OFFENCE

The issue of drug addiction is one that employers wrestle with in both
the public and private sectors.

Under the Human Rights Code, employers must make every effort to
accommodate an employee addicted to drugs, including alcohol, because
it is an illness that can be treated.

In the case of doctors and lawyers, many of whom are self-employed,
regulatory bodies often deal with assessing the problem.

The Law Society of B.C., for example, provides funding to the Lawyer
Assistance Program, which offers substance-abuse counselling as well
as counselling for medical and personal problems.

The key issue in every addiction case is whether on-the-job conduct is
culpable (blameworthy) or non-culpable conduct stemming from the
addiction. Here are a few recent cases dealing with that issue:

- - Last year, the federal Public Service Staff Relations Board ordered
the reinstatement of a Kent Institution prison guard, who was fired
for failing to tell his bosses about a fourth impaired driving
conviction -- he was illegally operating inmate escort vehicles while
banned from driving. The board decided the guard's troubles stemmed
from alcoholism, for which he had sought treatment.

- - On Dec. 12, 2000, the B.C. Labour Relations Board ruled that a head
nurse at the Castlegar and District Hospital should be reinstated for
the second time. The employer first discovered in 1996 that the male
nurse had been stealing drugs from the hospital. He was terminated
after it was argued that his conduct of theft and deception was
culpable. But the arbitrator disagreed, finding the nurse's conduct to
obtain drugs was an integral part of his chronic addiction to narcotic
and analgesic drugs. The arbitrator found that the addiction had to be
treated by the employer as a "manifestation of his illness."

In 1998, after the head nurse had resumed working full-time under a
"last chance" agreement and was reintroduced to administering drugs,
he had a relapse. His second dismissal was grieved in 1999 and he was
reinstated under another "last chance" agreement.

- - In 1993, Canadian Airlines dismissed a pilot after he was caught by
the RCMP rolling a joint of marijuana in his car parked beside the
freeway near Chilliwack. The pilot was headed to Vancouver's airport
to fly a plane to Taiwan. The company dismissed the pilot, a 20-year
veteran with no previous discipline record, for breaching company
policies for his off-duty marijuana use and transporting pot on
company aircraft.

The Canadian Pilots Association successfully grieved the ruling. The
arbitrator found the penalty excessive for the misconduct and
substituted a 22-month suspension, with the condition that the man
enter a drug rehabilitation program for pilots. The arbitrator found
the pilot had an addiction to both marijuana and alcohol.

The airline applied for a judicial review in B.C. Supreme Court, which
set aside the arbitrator's award. The B.C. Court of Appeal upheld the
lower court ruling in 1997.