A 37-year employee of Westlock County was summarily dismissed beside the road and made to walk 14 miles home, according to his family.
The incident occurred on Friday, May 16 when 76 year-old Bill Chapotelle was operating his grader on a road in the northern section of the county.
Westlock County denies the allegations surrounding the firing, but was unable to explain what took place leading up to, and after, the dismissal.
Chapotelle’s granddaughter, Marissa Letourneau, said that a county supervisor asked Chapotelle to step out of the grader and sacked him on the spot for unknown reasons. The episode has left the former employee and his family with more questions than answers.
“My whole family wants to know why it was handled this way,” Letourneau said. “When is it ever OK to fire an employee out on a road? He should have been called into the office and into a formal meeting in private.
“They say that they tried to contact him, clearly they knew where to find him, so they could have easily delivered a message requesting a private meeting with him.”
The shock of Chapotelle’s termination was further compounded after a dispute about the ownership of the tools in the grader. Chapotelle, a diabetic with a hearing impairment, was forced to make his own way home, a trip of some 14 miles.
He was eventually picked up by a family member and did not have to walk the full distance home, carrying his tools.
Letourneau said that one of the reasons her grandfather was given for the firing was because “He doesn’t listen.”
“He was given no other information beside that,” Letourneau said. “All we know is that at one point they had wanted him to bring the grader into Westlock to get the blades changed.
“For 35 years he’d done it himself because he’s also a heavy-duty mechanic and so he said, ‘Why would I waste a day of work driving it to Westlock to change the blades when I can do it myself?’”
Westlock County CAO Peter Kelly could not confirm if county graders were always required to have their blades replaced at the county workshop, of if there had been a recent change in any related policies.
Ultimate the county peace officer delivered a notice of termination to Chapotelle’s home on May 16.
In response to the allegations made by Chapotelle’s granddaughter, Westlock County CAO Peter Kelly issued a statement.
Sighting provisions in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) Kelly said he was unable to comment beyond generalities.
“We do wish to communicate that the county values its employees and strives to treat them all with dignity and respect,” the statement reads. “The county would never leave an employee stranded on the road, with no choice but to walk home, regardless of their age or circumstances.”
Also in the statement, the county pointed out that they dispute Chapotelle’s version of events, although Kelly wouldn’t expand on exactly how the Chapotelle’s story differed from theirs.
“While the county is very concerned with the false information that is being circulated, that concern does not permit the county to breach its legal obligations of privacy,” the statement reads.
When Kelly was questioned about the appropriateness of terminating the employment of a 76 year-old man beside the road and the judgment of the supervisor’s actions, Kelly said, “there’s two sides to every story,” and that the supervisor retained his full confidence.
The Westlock News is of the understanding that a recently-hired supervisor was in the north of the county on unrelated business, but it’s not known how he came to fire Chapotelle.
Requests by Chapotelle’s family for answers from the county have also been denied by the municipality, which again referred to FOIP.
“Their response was that they couldn’t discuss an employee, whether past or present, because they are under the privacy act,” Letourneau said.
Chapotelle has subsequently lodged a grievance with his union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), over his dismissal.
CUPE Alberta spokesperson David Loan said he was also unable to comment on specifics of the incident, but did confirm the union was acting on behalf of Chapotelle.
CUPE staff are currently gathering information on the case and once they have the information they need, the issue will be raised with the county.
“We’ve certainly been advised of a complaint,” Loan said. “Typically, an employee who has been let go will advise their shop steward of the situation. A grievance will be filed, which is basically a piece of paper that goes to the employer and says, ‘We disagree with this and we would like to examine it further with you.’”
Loan said that if and when the union chooses to act, meetings will take place in an attempt to resolve the issue.
If a suitable resolution can’t be found during mediation, the issue could be escalated to arbitration, and if that doesn’t work, there’s the courts.
Letourneau said that her grandfather is doing “OK” and that “He wants something to be done about this, because it’s not right.”
