A Remedy for the Abused Employee: The Evolution of the Law of Constructive Dismissal

• Author: Janice Rubin and James Heeney
• Pages: 477-494



ARemedyfortheAbused

Employee

TheEvolutionoftheLawof

ConstructiveDismissal

Janice Rubin and James Heeney*

A. INTRODUCTION

Theprinciplesofconstructivedismissalcanbetracedbackalmostacen-

turyHoweverthelawofconstructivedismissalcontinuestodevelopin

responsetoaworkplacethatiseverchangingandincreasinglydiverse

Coincidentw ith increased societal pre ssure to ensure that employees

aretreatedfairlyandreasonablyatworkthereisapronouncedjudicial

trendtoallowemployeestolitigateagainsttheiremployersincircum-

stancesinwhichtheyhavebeenabusedhumiliatedharassedbullied

orotherwisemistreatedatworkTheseemployeeshavesuccessfullyar-

guedthattheirsubstandardworkingconditionshavetriggeredacon-

structivedismissal

WhileOntarioemploymentlawyersarelikelymostfamiliarwiththe

case ShahvXeroxCanadaLtdthemovementtoapplytheprinciplesof

constructivedismissalpredatesthiscasebyanumberofyearsIndeed

itisarguablethattherootsofthisdevelopmentlieinthecaseBerg

v. Cowieinwhichanemployeelehisemploymentasafarmhandaer

beingcalledabastardandacurbyhisemployerThereinwhat

musthavebeenarevolutionarystatementinthelawofmasterandser-

* JaniceRubinisapartneratRubinThomlinsonLLPJamesHeeneyisanassociate

withRubinThomlinsonLLP

 OJNoGenDivadCCELdCAShah

 DLRSaskCABerg

JRJH

vantthecourtstatedthattheservantisentitledtodecenttreatmentat

thehandsofhismasterandthat

Theconditionsofemploymentinmyopinionwouldbeintolerable

ifamasterwerepermiedtousesuchlanguagetowardshisservant

andtheservantcouldonlyescapetherefrombylosinghiswagesifhe

refusedtosubmittoitthelanguageofthedefendantwassuchasno

mancouldreasonablybecalledupontosubmitto

At the time of this case the pr inciples ofcon structive dismissal a nd

theobligationsforreasonablenoticewerestilltobedevelopedClearly

thoughthefoundationoftheprinciplethatitisafundamentaltermof

the employmentcontract t hat an employertreats an employee with a

certainlevelofrespectiscertainlyevident

Morerec entlycourts across t he country have taken employersto

taskwhentheyhaveactedunreasonablytowardstheiremployeesand

crossedthelineofappropriateworkplacebehaviourThepurposeofthis

paperistocanvassthesecasesandtoreviewthetypesofworkplacebe-

haviourthathavecausedemployeestobeconstructivelydismissedIn

thelastpartofthepaperoneveryrecentcasewillbediscussedwhich

thoughnotdecidedonthebasisofconstructivedismissalarguablyisa

predictableoshootofthiscaselawInourviewthiscasesignalsthe

directionthecaselawislikelytodevelopinthefuture

 

There are two streams to t he traditional doctrine of const ructive dis-

missalThersthasfocusedonemployerbehaviourthathasfundamen-

tallyandunilaterallyalteredanessentialtermortermsoftheemployees

contractofemploymentInrecentyearsthemostfrequentlycitedcasein

thisregardistheSupremeCourtofCanadasdecisioninFarbervRoyal

Trust CoTheretheCourtconsideredwhetheraregionalmanagerwith

a guaranteed salar y had been constructively dismiss ed aer he was

oeredthepositionofmanagerofasinglebranchwithcompensation

basedoncommissionsonlyIndecidinginfavouroftheemployeethe

Courtheld

whereanemployerunilaterallymakesafundamentalorsubstantial

changetoanemployeescontractofemploymentachangethatvio-

latesthecontractstermstheemployeriscommiingafundamental

 Ibid. at

 SCR