West Kelowna city worker caught watching porn at lunchtime

A West Kelowna parks worker has lost an appeal after he was caught watching pornography on his cell phone at lunchtime.

The 57-year-old park worker wasn't fired or docked pay, but did receive a warning letter from the City.

However, his union wasn't happy with the discipline letter and argued that viewing pornography while on your lunch break at work on your personal cell phone wasn't conduct worthy of discipline.

The City of West Kelowna argued it broke its code of conduct in its respectful workplace policy.

According to a June 16 B.C. Labour Arbitration decision, the parks worker was taking lunch in the city vehicle parked at a public park when the incident occurred in August 2021.

At the time, two 19-year-old university students were working for the parks department and during their lunch break saw the city staffer watching pornography on his phone.

One of the students went home and spoke to his mother about it before submitting a complaint to the city saying it made him uncomfortable.

In the investigation, the 57-year-old married grandfather denied he was looking at pornography on work hours.

The union argued one of the students didn't like the worker and fabricated the story.

There is also some ambiguity as to what the actual images were of.

One of the students said he walked behind the parks worker and saw a picture of a woman exposing her breasts. He said he then swiped and saw a picture of a woman laying on a bed in lingerie.

Both students say they heard "pornographic sounds" coming from the phone.

The parks staffer denied he was looking at porn and handed in his phone for forensic analysis.

An independent expert found his phone showed no evidence he was looking at pornography, however, the expert pointed out that if he was using incognito mode they wouldn't be able to tell and only the internet service provider would have that access.

Records were requested from the internet service provider, but it refused to hand them over.

The parks worker argued the two students' evidence isn't reliable and there were too many inconsistencies in their testimony.

However, the Arbitrator didn't buy it.

"Viewing pornography in the workplace in the presence of other employees is objectionable and unwelcome behaviour and therefore breaches the respectful workplace policy," the Arbitrator said in the decision. "I appreciate that it is during the lunch break, on his personal phone and the (parks worker) did not intend for the other employees to see or hear it. However, he is still in the workplace in the presence of other employees."

Ultimately, the Arbitrator dismissed the union's appeal, leaving the park workers with a warning letter as his only punishment.

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