A Hawaiʻi Community College janitor fired after a restroom accident has won his job back, after an arbitrator found the college lacked just and proper cause to terminate him and raised serious concerns about how the case was investigated and decided. The decision restores a worker with more than 17 years of service and no prior safety discipline and raises broader questions about how Hawaiʻi Community College handles workplace safety, investigations, and accountability.
Longtime worker and safety advocate
The janitor has worked as a Janitor II in the University of Hawaiʻi system since 2006, first at UH Hilo and later at Hawaiʻi Community College. Over those years, his performance appraisals showed that he met expectations, and the arbitration record notes no history of discipline for safety violations or reckless use of equipment.
The arbitrator’s decision describes him as an experienced janitor and union steward who regularly raised safety concerns, including OSHA complaints about missing eye wash stations and unsafe chemical storage. In the arbitrator’s summary, Hawaiʻi Community College’s own HR Manager, Shana Kojiro, characterized him as someone with “keen awareness and knowledge of safety standards” who frequently brought safety issues to supervisors and administrators.
The restroom accident and the college’s response
On May 24, 2023, while cleaning an all‑gender restroom in Building 385A, water from the janitor’s cleaning reached a fire alarm panel, triggering an alarm and damaging the panel.
Hawaiʻi Community College’s Planning, Operations and Maintenance Manager, Steve Capeder, had just begun supervising the janitor and shadowed him on the morning of the incident. In an early‑morning email to HR, he wrote that “things went well” and that he had “got him to open up,” a description the janitor later confirmed. After the accidental alarm and damage, however, Capeder sent a second email the same day calling the event a “serious safety violation” and describing the janitor’s conduct as “wanton malfeasance,” and claiming the janitor had shown signs of anger and agitation when told to clean the restroom…