No job remains for an Okanagan man at Mission Hill Winery after he flushed 5,680 litres of sauvignon blanc down the drain by accident. The incident occurred on November 19, 2018. 

According to the West Kelowna winery, the loss totalled about 630 cases valued at $162,000 at retail. A month after the spillage, employee Brent Crozier was terminated with cause. The local branch of the Service Employees International Union grieved the termination.  

One month after the sauvignon spillage, employee Brent Crozier was hand-delivered a dismissal letter which said he was being terminated with cause in relation to the incident. Nicholas Glass, the arbitrator, ruled on December 30, 2019 that Mission Hill’s disciplinary response was not excessive and dismissed the grievance.

He noted that the employee was guilty of the same culpable negligence twice in about 18 months. These were the only two occasions in the history of the winery’s cellar operations that product had been lost down an open drain.  In the first incident, the employee’s error had resulted in a loss of 11,000 litres.

Source:  Global News January 21, 2020.