Employee Misconduct and Dismissal for Cause: Evidence from Canada

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine factors influencing a court's decision that an employer had just cause for dismissal on the grounds of employee misconduct. Based on an analysis of 140 Canadian dismissal cases over the period 1975 to 1989, the results indicated that employers won about 47 percent of the cases. In addition to the nature of the misconduct, a number of factors including employer condonation, circumstances negating intent, the record of the plaintiff and whether the employee had obtained a new job were related to case outcome. Previous research has addressed specific aspects of the law of wrongful dismissal in Canada, including an analysis of the law [1], the determination of reasonable notice [2], and the determination of just cause in incompetence cases [3]. As noted in past studies, the termination of a nonunion employee without just cause is wrongful, and the dismissed worker may sue the employer for damages based on the common law remedy of wrongful dismissal. A very common employer defense to a charge of wrongful dismissal is that the employee was justifiably terminated because of misconduct related to the job [4]. The present study outlines the results of an analysis of 140 Canadian miscon­ duct cases decided over a fifteen-year period commencing in 1975. In all of the cases examined, the employer argued just cause existed for dismissal on the basis of employee misconduct.