A City of Vancouver sanitation department worker fired for stealing a jacket that was to be given to him by a superintendent is appealing to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal to get his job back.
Joe Francescutti’s lawyer Dean Davison had scheduled a settlement conference Thursday with the City of Vancouver, more than two-months since city manager Penny Ballem refused to reinstate Francescutti.
Francescutti’s work record was described in a Feb. 11 letter by Ballem to CUPE Local 1004 business agent Steve Varty as “undistinguished.” An attached timeline of infractions from 1999 to 2011 showed six suspensions totaling 27 days, ranging from one day for not wearing proper footwear (March 13, 2001) to 10 days for inappropriate conduct with the public (Nov. 7, 2002).
“During a verbal exchange with a female resident, (Francescutti) pulled his pants down and reached into his buttocks and stood and scratched them,” claimed the appendix to Ballem’s letter, which was leaked to the Courier. “Grievor denied making the gesture; resident may have mistaken this for another type of action/gesture.”
Francescutti declined comment and referred a reporter to Davison, who called Ballem’s letter “just one side of the story.”
The letter said the union acknowledged discipline was warranted, but it wanted Francescutti’s reinstatement without back pay, based on his diagnosis of depression. The union claimed the city was aware of his condition since the end of 2011 and he was not adequately represented at an April 19, 2013 meeting. Francescutti, said the letter, “admitted his conduct, was remorseful and the behaviour in this incident was out of character.”
Ballem wrote that the city was not aware of the severity or timing of the onset of depression Francescutti suffered in 2013. An unnamed occupational health doctor found “no evidence of a causal link between the grievor’s condition and his ability to know right from wrong and understand the consequences of his actions,” Ballem wrote.
She dismissed the grievance and upheld Francescutti’s firing, but arranged for him to have access for six months from the date of the letter to the city’s comprehensive employee and family assistance program.
“Even in isolation, but particularly given the employment record, it is behaviour that we cannot tolerate,” Ballem wrote.
Said Davison: “It’s going to come down to the medical evidence and the timing of the medical evidence. Was Joe in a position where he was making clear decisions at the time of the incident?
“It’s our position that the city knew he had some issues and they didn’t do anything to accommodate him. They should have not only not terminated him, but accommodated him for the medical issues he was going through.”
Francescutti’s action is the latest chapter in more than a year of strife between workers and management. The Feb. 19, 2013 “Employee Engagement Notes: Day Shift and Afternoon Shift” report called the sanitation department a “toxic work environment.”
Patrick Dickie, lawyer for CUPE Local 1004, did not respond to an interview request.
twitter.com/bobmackin
