Canadian Employment Law Today

As part of his role, Volchoff attended weekly managers' meetings in Waterloo. Be- fore each meeting he stopped at a local res- taurant for lunch and had a glass of wine. is was his regular practice (confirmed at trial by the restaurant owner) and no issue was made of it until February 2014 when management was informed by the office receptionist that she smelled alcohol on Volchoff 's breath and that he may need a breath mint. Volchoff was then spoken to by manage - ment. He immediately admitted to having a glass of wine at lunch and mangement warned him that he was expected to be re- sponsible with alcohol at work. In the weeks and months that followed, management presented Volchoff with various accusations including that several employees and one customer lodged complaints about him al - legedly being inebriated while on the job. He steadfastly denied these allegations. Despite the employer claiming it had a zero-toler- ance policy with respect to alcohol in the workplace, the trial judge found there was no sufficient evidence that the policy existed and awarded Volchoff damages for wrongful dismissal. Many employers who are reading this article may think that their workplaces are already rampant with misbehaving employ - ees. However, it's never too late to turn the workplace culture around to increase pro- ductivity. Here are some take-aways to im- prove efficiency: Build expectations into employment agreements. e best way for employees to understand workplace expectations is to learn them when they join the organization. Employers should clearly communicate their requirements on punctuality, grooming, sick days or other problem areas. For existing employees, new policies that address these issues can be created. Introduce progressive discipline. Stan - dardize the discipline procedure when it comes to chronic poor behaviours. Verbal warnings, warning letters and suspensions will weed out the bad apples. Remain consis - tent and don't forget to document. Explore termination for employees that have proved to be incorrigible. Personal warning letters to offending employees. When introducing new poli - cies, write to offending employees about the policy. Acknowledge that while certain con- duct may have been condoned previously, expectations have increased and breaches of the policy will be subject to discipline. Follow through! Employer policies and employment agreements are only worth the paper they are written on unless employers spend the time and energy to enforce them. Take time at staff meetings and one-on-one employee interactions to reinforce work - place expectations. When an employee is being given a raise or a promotion is another great time to reinforce the rules! For more information see: • Cain v. Roluf 's Ltd., 1998 CarswellOnt 835 (Ont. Gen. Div.). • Elliott v. Parksville (City), 1990 CarswellBC 713 (B.C. C.A.). • Volchoff v. Wright Auto Sales Inc. 2015 Car - swellOnt 19856 (Ont. S.C.J.). Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2016 CREDIT: COREPICS VOF/SHUTTERSTOCK March 16, 2016 | Canadian Employment Law Today ABOUT THE AUTHOR SUNIRA CHAUDHRI Sunira Chaudhri is a partner with Levitt and Grosman LLP in Toronto, practising labour and employment law. She can be reached at (416) 597-3373 or schaudhri@levittgrosman.com

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