Canadian Employment Law Today

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GST #897176350 Published biweekly 22 times a year Subscription rate: $299 per year CUSTOMER SERVICE Tel: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5082 (Toronto) (877) 750-9041 (outside Toronto) E-mail: Carswell.customerrelations @thomsonreuters.com Website: www.employmentlawtoday.com Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1T 3V4 Director, Carswell Media: Karen Lorimer Publisher: John Hobel Managing Editor: Todd Humber Editor: Jeffrey R. Smith E-mail: Jeffrey.R.Smith@thomsonreuters.com ©2015 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. Emplo y ment Law Today Canadian www.employmentlawtoday.com How would you handle this case? Read the facts and see if the judge agrees YOU MAKE THE CALL 8 Two job offers but no job for paramedic THIS INSTALMENT of You Make the Call features an employee who accepted a job of- fer and ignored a second one. Sean Honoway was a primary care para- medic with Medstar Ventures, an ambu- lance and emergency medical service pro- vider in Nipawin and Carrot River, Sask. Hired in June 2005, Honoway's position was an entry-level one and on a casual basis, in- volving between 25 and 35 hours per week. Honoway was pursuing paramedic train- ing at the Saskatchewan College of Paramed- ics and was scheduled to become licensed when he finished his training in early 2011. On March 19, 2009, Medstar sent Honoway a letter offering him a full-time position as an EMT-Paramedic upon the completion of his training. If he accepted, he would be re- quired to report to work within seven days of obtaining his license. Honoway accepted the offer with a letter on July 1, 2009, that indicated his last day as a casual primary care paramedic would be August 15 so he could attend the training program. However, he continued to work "off and on" during 2009 and 2010 for Med- star while he attended paramedic college. On Oct. 12, 2010, as Honoway was near- ing the end of his paramedic training pro- gram, Medstar send him another letter of- fering him a full-time position. Honoway was confused because he had already ac- cepted an offer. He emailed the operations manager at Medstar to say the company had already offered him a job but he didn't follow up, nor did he accept the new offer. In November 2010, a union applied for certification to represent Medstar employ- ees. Medstar provided an employee list that included Honoway, who was called to vote on organizing. Medstar later objected to the vote on the grounds that Honoway was no longer employed with the company, but had voted. On Dec. 13, Medstar withdrew the sec- ond employment offer to Honoway since he hadn't responded to it. Two days later, Med- star issued a record of employment (ROE) to Honoway indicating he had quit his casual position and his training was complete. When Honoway received the ROE, he emailed Medstar to say he had never quit and had been offered a full-time paramedic position within seven days of completing his training. Medstar responded by saying Honoway hadn't responded to the October 2010 offer, so it considered him to have sepa- rated himself from employment. e com- pany also indicated he hadn't confirmed any intention to return after school ended, so it hired another person. In January 2011, Medstar offered Hono- way a position with less favourable terms. Honoway declined because of the terms and the fact he had found casual work as a para- medic with another organization. YOU MAKE THE CALL Did the employee end the employment relationship by failing to respond to the second offer of employment? OR Did the employer end the employment relationship by withdrawing the offer and sending an ROE? IF YOU SAID it was the employer who end- ed the relationship, you're right. e arbitra- tor found the 2009 offer of employment was an offer to continue the employment rela- tionship after Honoway completed his para- medic school and Honoway's acceptance on July 1 made it an enforceable employment contract. Honoway's obligation was to re- turn to school and report to work within seven days of being licensed and Medstar's obligation was to provide Honoway with full-time employment at that time, said the arbitrator. e arbitrator found Honoway lived up to his end of the bargain when he went to school, completed his training and became licensed within the time frame stipulated in the initial job offer. erefore, Honoway wasn't obligated to "acknowledge any more than he did" the second offer letter in Octo- ber 2010, because he already had an employ- ment agreement in place. e arbitrator noted that Honoway could have done more to tell Medstar of his inten- tions to return to work under the original contract after he received the second offer, but Medstar could have done more to reach out to him to find out what was going on. In addition, Medstar included Honoway on the list of employees for the union certification vote, so it appeared Medstar viewed itself as being in an employment relationship with Honoway while he was in school, said the arbitrator. Due to the fact the 2009 employment con- tract was in effect, the ROE Medstar sent to Honoway in December 2010 was incorrect. ere was no reason to assume Honoway had quit because his emails following the re- ceipt of his ROE supported the idea that he hadn't quit. It was Medstar who terminated the employment relationship when it sent the ROE and the letter withdrawing the sec- ond offer, said the arbitrator. Medstar was ordered to reinstate Hono- way as a full-time paramedic with compen- sation for loss of pay, benefits and seniority from the time his new position would have begun — seven days after he graduated from paramedic college and became licensed. For more information see: • Medstar Ventures Inc. and HSAS, Re, 2014 CarswellSask 483 (Sask. Arb.).

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