- In a recent decision, the Ontario Superior Court awarded $100,000 of punitive damages against an employer for being “mean and cheap” with respect to its actions towards an employee. The Court found that the employer did not have just cause to terminate the employee’s employment. Instead, the employer had searched for reasons to dismiss the employee to avoid its severance obligations under the employment contract, many of which it only discovered after terminating the employee. Of note, the Court found that the employer had failed to follow its own progressive discipline policy and had not warned the employee prior to termination.
- The British Columbia Court of Appeal recently upheld the termination of a 20-year employee for a single act of misconduct. In that case, an employee had accessed a confidential file of a manager who was responsible for managing highly sought after parking spots. The employee accessed this file without authorization and for the sole purpose of determining when she might receive a parking spot. The Court found that the employee had “breached the faith inherent in the work relationship” and upheld the termination. Leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was denied.
- In 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized a new contractual duty – the “duty of honest contractual performance”. The duty requires that parties to a contract must not lie or otherwise knowingly mislead each other about matters related to the contract. This duty was recently applied to an employment contract by the Courts in Ontario. The Court found that an employer had breached its duty of honest performance and fair dealings. The Court noted that the breach of this duty will be taken into account in deciding on the common law reasonable notice period owed to the employee.
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