Judge upholds firing of ‘disloyal’ cashier

Employee told client he could buy same items cheaper at Walmart

A Superior Court judge has upheld the firing of a grocery store cashier who told a client he could buy the same items cheaper at a nearby Walmart.

Nancy Beaulieu was terminated for “disloyalty” in 2013 by the Alimentation D.M. St. Georges Inc., a Provigo outlet in St-Michel-des-Saints, after the client’s spouse — cousin of the owner — informed the owner about what was said at the store.

Beaulieu’s union, the Travailleurs et Travailleuses Unis de L’Alimentation et du Commerce, Local 500, filed a grievance. After an arbitrator upheld the firing in 2014, the matter wound up in the Superior Court, where Judge Michel Pinsonnault could find no fault with the arbitrator’s ruling.

“It’s unthinkable that a cashier serving a client, at the time of payment, tell him that certain products he’s buying are cheaper at a competitor,” the judge said.

“It’s not behaviour recommended or approved by the employer.”

Beaulieu, an employee for 18 years, initially declined to explain herself, then conceded she may have compared the prices of the two stores but denied suggesting that the client go to Walmart.

The arbitrator, François Hamelin, said he found the client’s testimony more credible, particularly since a similar incident involving Beaulieu from 2011 came to light after the firing.

Beaulieu, he said, “effectively showed disloyalty, a serious fault,” given how hard it is for medium-sized, unionized stores in small towns to compete with non-unionized big-box retailers like Walmart. He said she had broken the chain of trust with her employer.