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Canada Post carrier fired for hoarding 6,000 pieces of mail gets his job back
An arbitrator has ordered the reinstatement of an Ontario postman fired for hoarding at least 6,000 pieces of mail during the summer of 2022 because Canada Post wasn’t aware of his post-traumatic stress disorder.
Hyun Min Jang was terminated from his job as a rural and suburban mail carrier in King City, Ont., “for misdirection and delay of mail, as a result of the discovery of thousands of pieces of undelivered mail in his personal vehicle,” according to a recent decision from Kathleen G. O’Neil, the arbitrator.
“Items retrieved from (Jang’s) vehicle included a great variety of mail, some of significant importance to customers such as wedding invitations, cheques, health cards, tickets, jury summons and immigration documents,” O’Neil said.
“The delay in delivery ranged from days to over two months. As well, keys to community mail boxes and other property belonging to the employer were found.”
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers grieved Jang’s termination.
“The union acknowledges the undelivered mail as major misconduct for a mail carrier, but asks that (Jang) be reinstated to his position with appropriate accommodation for a health condition that affected the conduct that led to his discharge,” O’Neil said.
“The employer asks that the discharge be upheld.”
The union argued “that the medical evidence negates some of the intentionality in (Jang’s) delay of mail, and efforts to conceal the problem from the employer, despite the fact that he knew what he was doing was wrong,” said the decision.
“His underlying PTSD left him more vulnerable to the avoidant behaviour that partially explains his inability to deliver the mail and failure to alert management, in the union’s view. Counsel argues that this is the only plausible explanation supported by the evidence. Further, union counsel underlines that (Jang) derived no benefit from the situation, and was coming in early and working late, amounting to many unpaid hours trying to deal with the backlog.”
The arbitrator sided with Jang.
“I have decided to reinstate (Jang as a rural and suburban mail carrier) without compensation, given that at the time of the discharge, the employer was unaware of (his) medical condition, or its effect on his ability to do his job,” O’Neil said.
“He is to be returned to his position at King City, or such other position on which the parties can agree, on the condition that he can provide adequate medical evidence to establish his fitness to return to duty, and whether any current medical conditions would impact his ability to perform his duties to the extent that he would need accommodation.”
Until Jang “can provide evidence of his fitness to return to work, with or without accommodation, (he) is to be considered to be on authorized leave without pay, with access to such benefits as the collective agreement provides,” she said.
Jang, who needed a Korean interpreter for the arbitration hearing, “worked successfully for Canada Post for approximately eight years, starting in 2014,” said O’Neil’s decision dated Dec. 16, 2025.
“In late June 2022, he transferred from a route in Brampton to one in King City (40 kilometres north of Toronto), which he found considerably more challenging. He fell seriously behind over the summer and by mid-September, he had accumulated about six thousand pieces of undelivered mail in his vehicle.”
A psychiatrist who testified in the case indicated Jang’s PTSD symptoms “originated in early life, and that his vulnerability to having symptoms surface would likely be lifelong,” said the decision.
Jang “found the route at King City very difficult, with the need to manually sort a high volume of mail, which was different from his previous assignment in Brampton,” it said.
He also “found the mood at the King City facility ‘dark,’ and felt intimidated by his colleagues, interpreting facial expressions and lack of greetings as unwelcoming, especially as compared to what he described as a family atmosphere in Brampton.”
Jang “recognized in his evidence that his colleagues might not have felt that way, but said that memories of his childhood abuse came flooding back,” said the decision.
“At some point in his tenure at King City, a colleague noticed some error (Jang) had made, and commented that if he made another mistake, he would be fired. She later said it was a joke. Nonetheless, in the context of the general atmosphere at King City, (Jang) testified it had a deep effect on him. He said that he felt suffocated at King City and he experienced this as similar to when he was young and bullied, sometimes violently, at school.”
Jang “described a variety of symptoms from the summer of 2022,” that included “difficulty sleeping and eating, intrusive memories of childhood bullying and abuse, a frequently racing heart, feeling mentally and physically exhausted to the point of suicidal ideation at times.”
Jang “was also unsure of the supervisory structure at King City, which did not have an embedded manager,” said the decision.
“He was supervised by a non-managerial postmaster at King City, whose role he was unclear about, while he had had a supportive onsite manager in Brampton.”
Complaints from customers on his route about delayed or missing mail led a postmaster to discover mail left in Jang’s vehicle on Sept. 14, 2022.
Canada Post has been in dire financial straits. Its most recent quarterly report in November included a $541-million before-tax loss, the largest in its history.
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