BUS-TED DRIVER BACK ON THE JOB

Coast Mountain Bus. CO. Forced To Reinstate Employee Suspected Of
Smoking Marijuana

A Lower Mainland bus driver who was fired last May after being
suspected of smoking marijuana before reporting for work has his job
back after an arbitrator ruled there wasn't enough evidence he took the drug.

Coast Mountain Bus Co. drivers Gurmukh Gill and Manny Sunga were in
uniform and on their way to work May 15 when they were pulled over
near the Port Mann Bridge by RCMP Const. Lorne Lecker.

Lecker has testified he decided to pull over the car after he saw
Gill, the passenger, passing something to Sunga that looked like a joint.

After stopping the car, Lecker asked Sunga for his licence and asked
him what he was smoking.

"Just a bit of pot," Sunga replied, according to the arbitrator's ruling.

Sunga was given a 24-hour suspension and had his car towed.

Concerned Gill and Sunga were about to drive buses, Lecker contacted
Coast Mountain, which sent a supervisor out to the scene.

In the days that followed, both Sunga and Gill maintained that only
Sunga had been smoking pot and not Gill.

Gill offered to take a drug test to prove his innocence -- an offer
the company refused.

Coast Mountain didn't believe Gill and fired both drivers two days
after the incident.

But in a recent ruling, arbitrator Ron Keras found there was
insufficient evidence Gill was smoking marijuana.

"I am unable to conclude on a careful review of all the evidence and
argument that [Gill] intended to smoke marijuana on his way to work,"
wrote Keras.

"It is equally likely that Mr. Sunga was the sole smoker."

In particular, Keras wrote, Gill's willingness to be tested "is
indicative of someone who is not worried about the outcome."

But Keras found Gill still showed "poor judgment" by planning to go
to work after being in the same car as someone who was smoking marijuana.

As punishment for that offence, Keras ruled that the seven months
Gill has been off work since the incident should be considered an
unpaid "disciplinary suspension."

Coast Mountain spokesman Doug McDonald said Wednesday the company
does not intend to appeal the arbitrator's decision, It will continue
to enforce a "zero tolerance" policy on drug and alcohol use by
drivers, he added.

"If you come to the workplace under the influence of drugs or
alcohol, you're subject to termination," he said.

That policy does not address drug or alcohol use by drivers on their
own time, McDonald said.

Terry Fedoruk, financial secretary of the Canadian Autoworkers Union
Local 111 -- the union that represents bus drivers -- said he
believes Gill has already returned to work.

"To my knowledge he's driving today," Fedoruk said Wednesday.

Sunga is still waiting for his arbitration hearing to determine if he
can return to work.

While he has admitted smoking pot on May 15, Sunga has argued he was
not in violation of Coast Mountain's "zero tolerance" policy because
he was planning to take the day off work after his babysitting
arrangements fell through earlier that day.