Worker at Windsor-Detroit tunnel crossing fired after smuggling $67 worth of perfume across border
An electrician who worked in the maintenance department at the Detroit and Canada Tunnel Corp., the company that runs the tunnel connecting Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, was reinstated after being fired for smuggling $67 worth of perfume.
J.P. Sylvestre had been with the company for more than 13 years. On Aug. 8, 2005, he began his day by making a repair on a toll booth on the Windsor side of the border. After that, he crossed to the United States to do some work on the Detroit side. The maintenance employees regularly crossed the border and often did not pass through customs to do so.
Sylvestre had a $50 duty free shop gift certificate he had received for Christmas that he hadn’t yet spent. He decided to stop and buy his wife something, eventually settling on three bottles of perfume. Anything bought at duty free is, by law, required to be exported immediately into the U.S. However, after making the purchase, he did a U-turn and went back into Canada and did not stop at customs. A worker at the duty free shop saw him make the U-turn and reported him.
He was subsequently fired. He grieved the termination, and an arbitrator overturned the firing. The arbitrator said dismissal was too harsh a penalty, given that Sylvestre did not try to hide his purchase (he used a gift certificate with his name on it, plus his tunnel ID card which gave him a further 10 per cent discount). The arbitrator said the suspension without pay would send a strong enough message to other workers that similar conduct would not be tolerated.
For more information see:
• Detroit & Canada Tunnel Corp. v. C.A.W., Local 195, 2006 CarswellNat 340 (Can. Arb. Bd.)
J.P. Sylvestre had been with the company for more than 13 years. On Aug. 8, 2005, he began his day by making a repair on a toll booth on the Windsor side of the border. After that, he crossed to the United States to do some work on the Detroit side. The maintenance employees regularly crossed the border and often did not pass through customs to do so.
Sylvestre had a $50 duty free shop gift certificate he had received for Christmas that he hadn’t yet spent. He decided to stop and buy his wife something, eventually settling on three bottles of perfume. Anything bought at duty free is, by law, required to be exported immediately into the U.S. However, after making the purchase, he did a U-turn and went back into Canada and did not stop at customs. A worker at the duty free shop saw him make the U-turn and reported him.
He was subsequently fired. He grieved the termination, and an arbitrator overturned the firing. The arbitrator said dismissal was too harsh a penalty, given that Sylvestre did not try to hide his purchase (he used a gift certificate with his name on it, plus his tunnel ID card which gave him a further 10 per cent discount). The arbitrator said the suspension without pay would send a strong enough message to other workers that similar conduct would not be tolerated.
For more information see:
• Detroit & Canada Tunnel Corp. v. C.A.W., Local 195, 2006 CarswellNat 340 (Can. Arb. Bd.)
