Employees may be required to participate in a certain number of safety training sessions each year. But what happens if they don’t?
A veteran firefighter in Ohio, who thought the department’s training classes were not worthwhile and attended only a fraction of required sessions, was terminated for gross neglect of duty.
What Happened?
"Christopher" worked as a firefighter/paramedic for 11 years in one town before moving to another town and working for its fire department for another 12 years.
The fire department in this town required its firefighters to attend at least 50 percent of all trainings offered annually. The problem was that Christopher was not meeting the requirement.
Although both the chief and assistant chief spoke to him about his deficiency, no further disciplinary action was taken under the department’s progressive discipline policy.
Christopher admitted both his knowledge of the requirement to attend at least 50 percent of trainings and his failure to do so. He told the assistant chief that he did not feel that he should have to attend because the sessions were not worthwhile in his opinion.
Meanwhile, the fire chief considered Christopher’s lack of training to be a dangerous safety liability.
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Employee Fired
The town’s board of trustees held a disciplinary hearing regarding Christopher’s failure to comply with the rules. The board concluded that his conduct amounted to gross neglect of duty and terminated his employment.
The board acknowledged Christopher’s prior training with his previous employer, but maintained that the training requirements and equipment used by his current employer were different.
What the Court Said
Christopher went to court to fight the board’s decision. But the court upheld the discharge, noting that the fire department’s employee handbook provided a disciplinary process for severe violations, including this statement: "Severe violations may require severe disciplinary actions and may bypass [the progressive disciplinary process]."
The court agreed with the board that the employee’s failure to attend 50 percent of required training classes amounted to gross neglect of duty, which was a severe violation of the department’s rules, and therefore justified termination.
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Why Didn’t They Act Sooner?
Although the employer won the case, one wonders why the fire chief didn’t take action sooner to deal with the employee’s unsafe attitude and behavior. Why wasn’t the progressive disciplinary policy implemented early on, the moment management realized that the employee was skipping required training classes?
Surely an official disciplinary meeting and oral warning, followed by a written warning, if necessary, would at least have put this employee on notice that his safety attitude and behavior was putting his job and safety in jeopardy—not to mention the safety of co-workers and the public.
Wouldn’t the chief have been partly to blame if this employee had injured himself or caused the death of a co-worker of fire victim because of something he missed in a training session?
Don’t wait for an accident—or for the last straw—when employees fail to attend required safety training or violate any other safety rule or requirement. Act immediately to turn the attitude and the behavior around. Later could be too late.