PM40065782
Emplo
y
ment Law Today
Canad ad a ian
www.employmentlawtoday.com
December 5, 2018
Worker fi red after exaggerated
and bad-faith bullying complaint
Comprehensive investigation revealed worker's account of events contradicted
all other witnesses; worker embellished her story with each re-telling
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
THE DISMISSAL of an Alberta worker
for making bad-faith and false allegations
of harassment and bullying has been up-
held by an arbitration board.
e worker was a pharmacy techni-
cian for Capital Care Group, an Edmon-
ton-based public continuing care organ-
ization. e worker was hired on a casual
basis in March 2005 and promoted to a
full-time position in February 2006. She
worked in Capital Care's central phar-
macy fi lling pharmaceutical orders for
the company's entire operations and had
no discipline on her record.
Capital Care has a workplace violence
and abuse policy that required all re-
ports of violence and abuse to be "made
in good faith and based on reasonable
grounds." e policy further stated that
employees who make false allegations or
are involved in retaliation against some-
one who made a complaint would be
"subject to disciplinary action up to and
including termination of employment."
During the worker's tenure, cliques
Not giving a hoot about just cause
costly for wildlife charity
Employer on the hook for 26 months notice plus aggravated damages
for making assumptions about mismanagement without investigating
BY DAVID J. MASTER
A WILDLIFE CHARITY must pay its
former executive director and long-time
employee more than $90,000 in lost salary
and aggravated damages after it unceremo-
niously dumped the employee for fi nancial
mismanagement without a proper inves-
tigation, the British Columbia Supreme
Court has ruled.
O.W.L. is a charitable society devoted to
rescuing and caring for injured raptors —
such as owls and eagles — and promoting
their return to the wild. Beverly Day, who
founded O.W.L. in 1985 and was its long-
standing executive director, was dismissed
by its board of directors on Oct. 23, 2014,
without notice, allegedly for just cause.
O.W.L.'s just-cause dismissal of Day cen-
tered on allegations that she misappro-
priated its funds to pay for the cost of her
Danger from unstaffed post not a
normal condition of employment
pg. 3
Staffi ng prison control post full-time
was reasonable safety measure to take
The 'capital punishment'
of employment law pg. 4
Just-cause dismissal can get rid
of problem employees, but it
takes work to make it stick
GROUNDS on page 8 »
INVESTIGATOR
on page 11»
CREDIT:
GEARSTD/SHUTTERSTOCK
with Leah Schatz
Ask the Expert pg. 2
Accommodation for
contract employees
