Employee's Ambiguous Threat to Supervisor

In disciplinary matters between an employer and employee, the burden of proof is on the employer. In one case, an employee was fired for threatening a supervisor. The employee filed suit. The arbitrator ordered her reinstated in the company, with a warning note in her file. His ruling was that the threat was too ambiguous. It is clear that employers will have to take circumstances into careful consideration in such cases before initiating a disciplinary action. In another case an employee was discharged for what the company called willful distruction of property. The arbitrator ruled the penalty was too severe and the employee was suspended for one week without pay. Five employees on a production line in a plant were discharged after their production level dropped for no apparent reason. They were warned several times to no avail. In this case, the arbitrator ruled in the company's favor, saying that the slowdown in production was well documented and no legitimate reason for it had been given by the employees.