DETAILS OF THE CELGAR PROPOSAL were explained
at both the Castlegar and Nakusp meetings by Local 1-405
Ist vice-president Jack Munro shown here with Jim Inglis,
chairman of the Nakusp Sub-Local, during the Nakusp
meeting held the evening of November 21.

CASTLEGAR CELGAR STRIKERS, members of Local 1-405, are shown casting their
ballots to reject the latest company offer for settlement of the three-month-long
strike. The voting followed the special meeting held in Castlegar November 21. The
members at this meeting and the members in Nakusp that evening voted 93.3% to

reject the proposal.

LOCAL 1-71 WINS ARBITRATION CASE FOR MEMBER

IWA

An East Indian member of
Local 1-71 fired for incomve-
tency by Weldwood of Can-
ada’s Empire Lumber Divi-
sion at Squamish, won rein-
statement with lost pay of
$1,150 when the Local Union
took the case to arbitration.

Local 1-71 2nd vice-presi-
dent Walter Kozij reports
that the able arguments put
up by lawyer Alex Macdon-
ald who presented the case
for the Union, and Rae Eddie,
MLA, the Union’s nominee on
the board, were instrumental
in winning the favourable
award.

DISCIPLINING

Kozij added that this vic-
tory was especially pleasing
to the Local officers who have
suspected the company of dis-
ciplining individual East In-
dian employees for no other
reason than to throw fear in-
tc the others.

The company’s whole case
hinged on whether it could
prove the fired member was
incompetent to do his job. The
Union argued that the com-
pany had failed to prove its
point and during the hearing
brought out more than enough
evidence to convince the
board that the member had
been unjustly dismissed.

The member, Amar Singh
Biln, had worked for the com-
pany two and one-half years.
Until August 1967, he had
worked on the planer and
the green chain.

Around the 4th of August,
he was demoted from the

planer chain and made clean-
up man. On the 8th of Sep-
tember the company fired him
from this job charging that
his work was unsatisfactory.

During the board hearing,
the company pressed the point
of Biln’s demotion in an at-
tempt to prove that he was
completely incompetent. The
board refused to buy this ar-
gument. While agreeing that
he. might have been unsatis-
factory on the planer and
green chain it maintained
that there was not sufficient
evidence to show he was in-
competent to do the job of
cleanup man.

The board in refuting this
point stated:

“The evidence brought by
the Company as to Biln’s rec-
ord of performance as clean-
up man is less persuasive. He
was on the cleanup job for
slightly more than one month
and although the witnesses
for the Company testified that
his work was unsatisfactory
there was little or no evidence
tending to show the standard
of his work as compared to
that expected of a cleanup
man. ,

DEFINITION

“Tt is clear that the Com-
pany may discharge for in-
competency but before it can
be determined whether or not
an employee is competent or
incompetent the definition of
the word ‘competency’ must
be found.

“The Board has considered
the award of the Arbitration

Board in the case of IWA Lo-
cal 1-424 and Strom Lumber
Company Limited dated the
25th June, 1954, where com-
petency is interpreted by Pro-
fessor A. W. R. Carrothers,
Chairman of that Board, as
follows:

STANDARD

“In respect to any given
function in the Company’s
mill whether skilled or un-
skilled, there is only one
standard of competency, eith-
er the employee performs a
normal or average day’s work,
in terms of quantity or qual-
ity, or both, or he does not;
he is either competent or in-
competent.’ ° . . ‘if any em-
ployee is to be classified as
incompetent the differences
between his performance and
the standard by which he is
being gauged, the standard of
the productivity of the aver-
age man performing a normal
day’s work at a given func-
tion, must be measurable and
substantial. The fact that an
employee’s performance com-
pares unfavourably with the
performance of another em-
ployee performing the same
function may be evidence that
the first employee falls sub-
stantially below the standard
but the fact that an employee
is ‘less competent’ is not con-
clusive evidence that he is
‘incompetent’.”

“And again:
* “But whatever may be the
basis of a man’s incompetency

the difference between his
competence and the standard

must be measurable and sub-
stantial before it can form the
basis for layoff or discharge.’

“In the case before this
Board it was evident that the
grievor was not competent to
perform the work required on
the green chain and the plan-
er chain. A great deal of evi-
dence was adduced to this
effect and, as has been point-
ed out above, the grievor did
not complain when he was
demoted as a result of this in-
competence.

“The evidence adduced by
the Company as to his per-
formance as a cleanup man
is less satisfactory.

“There was evidence as to
the nature of the work to be
performed by a cleanup man
but none as to the standard
which is required in the job.
It was clear that in the opin-
ion of the supervisory per-
sonnel who gave evidence the
grievor did not perform at a
level which he might have
done but the Board is unable
to determine from the evi-
dence before it that the griev-
or’s standard of performance
was measurably and substan-
tially below that of an aver-

age man performing a normal:

day’s work as cleanup man.

AGREEMENT

“Article XXIV Section 2
(d) of the Collective Agree-
ment provides that if any ar-
bitration board finds that an
employee has been unjustly
suspended or discharged that

FIRED FOR INCOMPETENCY BY EMPIRE LUMBER DIVISION

employee shall be reinstated
by the Company without loss
of pay and with all his rights
and privileges preserved un-
der the terms of the Agree-
ment, and provides further
for the assessment of the
amount of wages to be paid
to the reinstated employee.
“The Board finds and
awards that Amar Singh Biln
be reinstated as a cleanup

man.”

HOLD
EVERYTHING

... with Watson Logging
and Lumber Gloves.
Special designs for
chokermen and riggers
... lumber handlers and
‘Cat’ or truck drivers.
Ask for them by name —
. .. Watson Green Chain »
Mitts, Mill-Rite and
Lumber Loader Gloves.

WATSON 4

127 E. 2nd Ave., Vancouver, &