An employee’s demand for a bonus and assertion that his employment relationship would not be “fruitful” and that his employer could fire him, was the reason for his dismissal, a court has decided. The dismissal was not retaliation for raising safety concerns.
The employer did environmental assessment and testing. The employee was a laboratory manager. In December 2009, the employer told him that he would not get a performance bonus because he did not meet the criteria. In early January of 2010, the employer told staff that there was a general slowdown of work.
Early on January 11th, the employee sent an e-mail to the employer complaining about not getting a bonus. He ended the e-mail by saying that he did not think the working relationship would be fruitful in the future, and that if the employer was not satisfied with his productivity, it could fire him. In the same e-mail, he complained that a “hood for bulk sample analysis” should be replaced. Later the same day, the employer did indeed terminate his employment, referring to his “apparent employment dissatisfaction”.
The employee then filed a complaint with the Workers’ Compensation Board of British Columbia, arguing that he had been dismissed in retaliation for raising safety issues, including those mentioned in the e-mail. The Board disagreed, finding that the employee had been dismissed in direct response to the e-mail, and that the e-mail primarily related to his bonus; the termination was unrelated to any occupational health and safety concern.
The employee’s appeal to the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal was dismissed. The WCAT noted that some of the safety issues raised in the employee’s Board complaint were not in the employee’s e-mail. Although the employee had raised safety concerns earlier – before sending the e-mail – he had not been able to prove any relationship between his raising of those concerns and his dismissal.
The employee then tried to attack the WCAT’s decision in the B.C. Supreme Court. The court found that the WCAT’s decision was based upon the evidence. The decision was upheld.
Despite popular perception, safety-retaliation / reprisal cases are difficult for employees to win in Canada. Where, as in this case, the employer is able to show that there is another reason for the termination, courts and tribunals will often be hesitant to find that the employee was dismissed for raising safety issues.
Goghari v. Saarela, 2014 BCSC 1667 (CanLII)
