POT-SMOKER WINS EI BATTLE

TORONTO -- Gary Locke was just finishing his shift at an Ontario
poultry plant when he lit up a joint. His boss caught him and fired
him on the spot.

Locke, who had worked at the plant for about eight years, applied for
employment insurance benefits and was turned down on the grounds that
it was "not unreasonable for the employer to have a zero-tolerance
policy regarding the use of illegal drugs."

After a series of appeals, Locke took his case to the Federal Court of
Canada and won.

The court found that the company, Horizon Poultry, had not explicitly
told employees that they would be dismissed if caught smoking dope.

It also ruled that other employees at the plant had been caught
smoking dope and only warned, not dismissed.

Therefore, Locke's behaviour was not "such a fundamental breach of the
employer/ employee relationship that any employee must have known
that, if apprehended, he was likely to be dismissed without warning,"
the court ruled.

"Although engaging in criminal conduct on an employer's premises may
warrant dismissal, smoking a joint of marijuana in the circumstances
of this case was not misconduct within the meaning [of EI legislation]
because it was not wilful or reckless," the court said.

The court ordered EI to reconsider Locke's application and officials
sent him $10,000, representing the full benefits he was entitled to
from the date of his dismissal.