Workplace New Year’s Resolutions for Employers: #1 – Implement Workplace Relationship Policies

• Author: Gabriel Granatstein
• Date: January 03, 2015

Happy New Year! For the next few posts, I thought I’d focus on lessons learned through employment law cases – essentially a list of resolutions to make and keep in 2015 – for employers and their HR departments, in particular. The first one, Shirbigi v. JM Food Services Ltd., 2014 BCSC 1927 (CanLII), comes to us from British Columbia and deals with what can happen when a boss has an affair with one of his employees and a Workplace Relationship Policy either isn’t in place or isn’t followed . The sordid details can be summarized as follows:

[8] [The Employee] is a 40-year old woman who emigrated from Iran in 2004. In 2009 she began working at a corporate FreshSlice store as an assistant manager. Within a short period she became the store manager and, in January 2010, she was the successful candidate for the corporate position of DM….

She is talented and then gets the position. Things get complicated quickly:

[11] Coincident with [the Employee’s] securing the DM position, the owner and CEO of FreshSlice, sent her an email congratulating her and suggesting they meet for coffee or brunch on a Sunday morning, when he usually goes to the gym or for a hike. [The CEO] was married and his wife was on maternity leave from her employment at FreshSlice’s head office at the time.

[12] [The Employee] said she agreed to do the Grouse Grind with [the CEO] one Sunday in January 2010; however, when he came to pick her up they stayed at her apartment, watched a movie, and had sex. [The Employee] said this marked the...