Canadian Employment Law Today

PM40065782 Emplo y ment Law Today Canad ad a ian www.employmentlawtoday.com January 18, 2017 Worker fi red for threatening co-worker twice AN ARBITRATOR has upheld the dismissal of an Ontario worker after he twice threatened a co-worker and tried to downplay it afterwards. e worker was employed with Atlantic Packaging, a producer of packaging products in Toronto, for 12 years as a forklift operator. On Dec. 10, 2015, the worker approached another employee on the plant fl oor after his shift was over and began yelling at him in front of several other employees. He said "If you have a f---ing problem, we can take it outside." e worker's supervisor came out of his offi ce and the other employee told him that the worker had just threatened him. e supervisor asked the worker if this was true and the worker agreed that it was, using another profanity in the process. e supervisor told the worker to leave, but about 15 minutes later the supervisor received a text from the worker about the other employee containing another profanity. e other employee fi led a complaint and told Atlantic that less than one month earlier, the worker approached him while he was operating a forklift on the night shift with nobody else around. e worker was driving a forklift as well and blocked his way, yelling "what the f--- is your problem?" e other employee claimed the worker followed this up by yelling "You have a problem with me? You better mind your f---in' business." e other employee said he didn't report this incident at the time because he wasn't sure how it would be handled, given it was a single incident without any witnesses. Atlantic investigated the complaint by interviewing the employees who had witnessed the December incident, the supervisor, and the worker. e worker denied that anything happened and said someone had told him his co-worker had been talking about him. He said he only asked the other employee why he had been saying things about him and didn't off er to "take it outside" or make any threats. e worker also said "nothing happened" with the November incident and had only Blindsided employee gets 12 months' notice — plus $50,000 Company's failure to give sales manager a warning before dismissal while trying to avoid paying notice entitlement was bad-faith conduct BY JEFFREY R. SMITH AN ONTARIO EMPLOYER must pay a fi red sales manager a year's worth of reasonable notice and $50,000 in punitive damages for falsely claiming cause for dismissal and acting unfairly in the way it terminated his employment, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled. Tom Morison, 62, was the regional man- ager for Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec as well as the manager for federal government sales for Ergo-Industrial Seat- ing Systems, an offi ce chair manufacturer based in Mississauga, Ont. He was hired in August 2004 as an independent sales contractor and then hired as a full-time employee on Dec. 1, 2006. A review by the Canada Revenue Agency a couple of years later determined Morison had employee status as of Jan. 1, 2006. CREDIT: MAXSATTANA/SHUTTERSTOCK WORKER CLAIMED on page 7 » COMPANY'S on page 6 » Background check refusal grounds for dismissal pg. 2 Court upholds termination of employee who refused to consent to check Alcohol problem no excuse for forged sick notes pg. 4 Employee wasn't intoxicated when she submitted 16 false doctor's notes and tried to shift the blame to others Speeding, sleeping derail engineer's employment pg. 3 Disciplinary history, ailure to take responsibility give cause for dismissal

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