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Quebec trucking Company Ordered to Reinstate Driver Fired for Drinking and Driving
CTV News ^ | July 31, 2023

Posted on 07/31/2023 1:26:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway

A Quebec trucking company has been ordered to reinstate a driver who was fired after she drank at least nine beers before she lost control of her truck on a Pennsylvania highway.

The driver's actions amounted to serious misconduct, but her drinking was the result of a disability — alcoholism — and trucking company Groupe Robert should have made a reasonable accommodation for her, labour arbitrator Huguette April said in her written July 18 decision.

"The night of the accident, she needed to drink," April said. "She admitted that even though she knew she shouldn't, the need was stronger, like something that she couldn't control."

Groupe Robert fired the driver after she was involved in a single-vehicle crash shortly before midnight on June 30, 2022.

The facts of the case say the driver stopped twice to buy six packs of beer as she drove from a Montreal suburb to Pennsylvania. The woman admitted she drank at least nine beers during the trip, but she said she didn't remember whether she drank the final three on the road. After the crash, which damaged the truck but caused no injuries, she was arrested with a blood-alcohol level that was 0.18 — more than twice the legal limit.

The driver told her employer about her drinking problem about a week after the crash, one day after she sought medical help to stop drinking. She was officially fired Aug. 31, after she had completed an in-patient addiction treatment program.

April said there is no evidence Groupe Robert asked or verified whether their troubled employee suffered from alcoholism.

The driver told the arbitrator the company could have installed an alcohol testing device in her truck after the crash, or found other work for her.

Groupe Robert, meanwhile, told April that the collective agreement between the company and the union representing drivers is clear: The penalty for drinking and driving is immediate termination of employment.

The company said it will appeal the decision.

"At Groupe Robert, the safety of all road users is our absolute priority," company spokesman Kim Leclerc wrote in an email on Monday. Leclerc said the decision to fire the driver "was not taken lightly."

"We have a responsibility to the community to ensure that our employees meet the highest safety standards."


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: canada; donatedonaldtrump; donatefreerepublic; donatetrump; trucker
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Seriously?
1 posted on 07/31/2023 1:26:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Not the Bee?


2 posted on 07/31/2023 1:28:00 PM PDT by Quality_Not_Quantity ("...for the sake of His name." Psalm 23:3)
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To: nickcarraway

This a Canadian thing. Cultural differences and all that.


3 posted on 07/31/2023 1:34:49 PM PDT by arthurus (covfefe pq)
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To: arthurus

Except it happened here in PA


4 posted on 07/31/2023 1:35:31 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: nickcarraway
The driver's actions amounted to serious misconduct, but her drinking was the result of a disability — alcoholism — and trucking company Groupe Robert should have made a reasonable accommodation for her, labour arbitrator Huguette April said in her written July 18 decision.

What sort of "accommodation" should the trucking company have made for this alcoholic employee? Provide her with her own personal designated driver?

5 posted on 07/31/2023 1:36:19 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /Sarc tag really necessary? Pray for President Biden: Psalm 109:8)
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To: nickcarraway

Canada has gone full neo-fascist under Trudeau.


6 posted on 07/31/2023 1:36:34 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (Biden not only suffers fools and criminals, he appoints them to positions of responsibility. )
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To: Tennessee Nana

“Except it happened here in PA”

IT HAPPENED IN CANADA


7 posted on 07/31/2023 1:41:17 PM PDT by TexasGator
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To: TexasGator

Excerpt of the first sentence.

nine beers before she lost control of her truck on a Pennsylvania highway.

Is there a pa in canada?


8 posted on 07/31/2023 1:45:59 PM PDT by SPDSHDW (Ron DeSantis. The latest GOPe champion in a long list of winners. Jeb! Mitt Romney, and John McStain)
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To: SPDSHDW

“Is there a pa in canada?”

No, but the firing and re-hiring was in Canada!


9 posted on 07/31/2023 1:48:33 PM PDT by TexasGator
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To: nickcarraway

Canada..ass backwards since Trudeau.


10 posted on 07/31/2023 1:49:29 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: SPDSHDW

“Excerpt of the first sentence.”

First sentence:

“A Quebec trucking company ...”


11 posted on 07/31/2023 1:51:24 PM PDT by TexasGator
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To: TexasGator

on a Pennsylvania highway


12 posted on 07/31/2023 1:54:20 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Tennessee Nana

In Canada


13 posted on 07/31/2023 1:55:05 PM PDT by TexasGator
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To: Yo-Yo

did she TELL them she was a drunk???


14 posted on 07/31/2023 1:57:59 PM PDT by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: nickcarraway
That's an easy one.The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's DMV can suspend her commercial license for 5 years. I'm not sure if that would cause a foreign country to suspend it but my guess if that it would.

At the very least she wouldn't be able to drive in the US.

15 posted on 07/31/2023 2:00:07 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Two Words: BANANA REPUBLIC!)
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To: nickcarraway

Sorry Officer but I have a disability.


16 posted on 07/31/2023 2:01:17 PM PDT by immadashell (Save Innocent Lives: Ban Gun Free Zones)
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To: TexasGator

Nope...the story says Pennsylvania.


17 posted on 07/31/2023 2:01:42 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Two Words: BANANA REPUBLIC!)
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To: Gay State Conservative

“Nope...the story says Pennsylvania.”

Quebec is in Canada.


18 posted on 07/31/2023 2:04:21 PM PDT by TexasGator
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To: nickcarraway

“The night of the accident, she needed to drink,” April said. “She admitted that even though she knew she shouldn’t, the need was stronger, like something that she couldn’t control.”

How about con trolling whether or not to get behind the wheel and drive a semi?

Was that due to driverism?


19 posted on 07/31/2023 2:17:26 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: TexasGator

Very true...but she lost control of her vehicle in Pennsylvania.


20 posted on 07/31/2023 2:17:41 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Two Words: BANANA REPUBLIC!)
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