An employee of Nav Canada had their punishment reduced to a year of unpaid suspension after an arbitrator ruled against their supposed termination for violating a company policy. In a report from the HR Reporter, the employee was initially fired after consuming cannabis while attending a course at Nav Canada's training centre in Ontario.

According to the report, the employee reportedly consumed cannabis on two consecutive evenings so he can fall asleep. The security at that time notified the employee about the complaints of cannabis smell and asked them to refrain from consuming it on Nav Canada property.

The following day, however, the employee continued to smoke cannabis while on a walk outside - prompting the manager to summon them to explain. The employee defended that the cannabis consumption was because of the stress and the death of a family member.

Nav Canada has a policy that prohibits the possession, distribution, sale, or consumption of cannabis at the company's property while on duty. The employee said they were aware of the regulation but did not know that it also applied in the training centre.

The employee was terminated after returning to Vancouver, but the union representing the employee challenged in court the decision to fire them.

According to the union, the decision to terminate the employee was excessive given the mitigating instances around its consumption. The union also defended that the employee used the cannabis outside and was cooperative during the investigation.

The employee has also stopped consuming cannabis, according to the report, and began seeing a counsellor and was prescribed antidepressants.

However, it decided that the worker should receive a year-long unpaid suspension in order to set a "strong specific deterrent for the [worker] and a significant general deterrent for other employees."

Dylan Snowdon, a Calgary-based employment lawyer, told the HR Reporter that the one-year suspension is "almost unheard of."

"Where termination is viewed as too serious, a one-year suspension is awfully close to termination as far as discipline goes, in my mind," Snowdon told the HR Reporter.

Cannabis in the workplace

In Canada, recreational cannabis was legalised back in 2018 - but how should workplaces address this when it comes to formulating their policies?

Elizabeth Traynor, partner at Siskinds' Labour and Employment Group, previously told HRD that a policy should look at recreational and medically prescribed drugs and see how each situation should be addressed.

Traynor recommended treating cannabis as employers would handle alcohol in the workplace.

"Our recommendation in dealing with cannabis is to think of it as alcohol. Most employers are not carrying out alcohol testing every day. However, if an employee comes to work and appears to be under the influence of alcohol then employers have some experience with that – just send them home," Traynor told HRD.