Canadian Employment Law Today

PM40065782 Emplo y ment Law Today Canad ad a ian www.employmentlawtoday.com November 11, 2015 Cause termination upheld due to undisclosed disability pg. 3 Disability not a factor in dismissal following threats with Brian Johnston CREDIT: PHOTONCATCHER/SHUTTERSTOCK Drafting restrictive covenants and making them stick pg. 4 It can be an uphill battle for employers trying to protect their interests when employees leave, but enforceable restrictive covenants are doable ASK AN EXPERT pg. 2 Employee refuses EAP help Correctional offi cer fi red, reinstated after hiding charge Offi cer breached policy requiring disclosure of criminal charges for two years but eventually owned up to them BY JEFFREY R. SMITH AN ONTARIO correctional offi cer who was fi red for not telling her employer about a drunk-driving charge for two years has been reinstated with a suspension in place of dismissal by the Ontario Grievance Set- tlement Board. Camila Lunario, 32, was a correctional offi cer for the province of Ontario. Hired in December 2006, she worked at a few dif- ferent facilities in the Greater Toronto Area including the Toronto Jail, ending up at the new Toronto South Detention Centre in De- cember 2013. Lunario and all other correctional offi cers were made aware of the Ministry of Commu- nity Safety and Correctional Aff airs policies, including standing orders that they must immediately report any criminal charges against them so the ministry could deter- Employee owns up to false sick claim, gets suspension reduced AN ARBITRATOR has ordered an em- ployer to reduce the suspension given to an employee who called in sick under false pre- tences but came clean about it the same day. David Hall was a cut-link journeyman for BA International, a company that inspected and handled Bank of Canada paper currency. Hall was hired in 1998. Due to the nature of BA International's business, the workplace was a high security environment and em- ployees required a certain level of security clearance. Hall's clearance was at the "secret" level, which was needed to do his job. Early in the morning on May 26, 2015, Hall called his work and said he was sick and needed to stay home. His supervisor called him back that afternoon to say he would need to submit a medical certifi cate verify- ing his absence due to illness. Hall immedi- ately said he wasn't really sick, but needed to take the day off because there was no water at his home. Hall explained that when he discovered there was no water at his home that morn- ing, he knew he was going to be late for work but couldn't request a day off without pay. He claimed he immediately regretted doing it and planned to talk to his supervi- sor the next day. Hall said he knew he still had vacation days remaining and he was embarrassed about his actions. He acknowledged he was wrong and exercised bad judgment by call- ing in sick. BA International took Hall's misconduct seriously, because his job required a high lev- el of trust in a high security environment. By initially misleading his employer, Hall dem- onstrated a capacity to be fraudulent, which raised serious questions for BA Internation- al about whether it could trust him anymore. In addition, the company felt had Hall's supervisor not called him back to ask for a LENGTHY SERVICE on page 7 » EMPLOYEE on page 6 »

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