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c hangingandi ncreasinglydiverse

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

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

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

stancesin whichtheyhavebeen abusedhumiliatedha rassedbullied

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

guedt hattheir substandard workingconditions havetr iggereda con-

structivedismissa l

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

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

constructivedism issalpredatesthi scasebyanumber ofyearsIndeed

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

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

being called a bastarda nda cur byh isemployerTher ein what

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

* JaniceRubinisapart neratRubinThomlin sonLLPJamesHeeneyisanassociate

withRubinThoml inson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i ntolerable

ifam asterwereper miedtouse suchlang uagetowardshis servant

andtheser vantcouldonlyescapet herefrombylosingh iswagesifhe

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

mancouldreasonablybecal ledupontosubmitto

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

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

thoughthefou ndationoftheprinciplethatitisaf undamentaltermof

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

certainlevelofrespectiscert ainlyevident

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

taskwhen theyhave actedunreas onably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construct ivelydismissedIn

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

thoughnotdecidedonthebasisofconst ructivedismissalarg uablyisa

predictableoshoot ofth iscase lawInourviewth iscase signalst he

directionthecas e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a nemployeescontractofemploymentachanget hatvio-

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

 Ibid. at

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