In X-treme Packaging Services Inc. v Savoie, 2025 ABESAB 13, an employer was not able to establish just cause for dismissal of an employee who had made a disrespectful and insubordinate comment, and had prior discipline.
This case is important because it illustrates how important an employer's disciplinary practices can be to its ability to assert just cause for dismissal.
Facts
The following were some of the pertinent facts summarized by the Alberta Labour Relations Board, sitting as appeal body:
- The complainant employee was employed at X-treme Packaging Services Inc. for 6 months as a labourer, was promoted, and then worked over a year as a press operator prior to his termination of employment, purportedly for just cause
- The employee had been asked verbally to correct behavior on a number of occasions over the course of his employment, including once for not wearing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE)
- The employee had one written warning for yelling at a supervisor. The box provided in the warning for "plan for improvement" was left blank, and there was nothing warning of potential termination of employment
- About a month after the written warning, the following events
precipitating his dismissal occurred:
- The employee's machine was sitting idle for the first hour in the morning. A supervisor asked him if he knew what he was supposed to have been doing during that time, and the employee responded "don't know; don't care". The employee was frustrated at the time he said this
- The employee was brought into a meeting with his supervisors:
- His employer explained that the way he had spoken to his supervisor was unacceptable, and they described expectations of his role
- He asked for a raise. The evidence of the employee and employer
of what happened next was in dispute:
- The employer's evidence was that they asked him why he thought he deserved a raise, and his response was that if his performance was "here" (with his hand at midsection level), if he didn't get raise it would be "here" (with his hand at knee-high level). The employer's evidence was that since he was not going to give 100%, they were terminating his employment
- The employee's evidence was that when he was asked for the raise they laughed at him and asked about productivity. He responded with the comment that since they didn't give 100% (by having the correct materials on hand), why should he give 100%
- The employer provided him a termination letter alleging termination for cause
- The employee made a successful employment standards complaint, securing 1 week of statutory termination pay
- The employer appealed to the ALRB sitting as appeal body for the ESC officer award
- The only issue on appeal was whether X-treme Packaging had just cause to dismiss the employee.
Analysis / Conclusion
The ALRB summarized the two common routes to finding just cause: (1) a single serious incident, or (2) less serious misconduct with warning of potential termination and opportunity to improve.
The ALRB did not explicitly say which version of events of the discipline meeting it preferred, but went straight to determining that the second path to just cause was the one at issue, but it had not been met in this case because the employee had never been warned prior to the final incident that his employment might be terminated.
The ALRB had the following to say about the effect the employer's disciplinary practices had on its case:
[25] The Appellant's evidence [...] suggests it did not want to be overly formalistic in its relationship with its employees and document everything, which is an employer's prerogative. However, it cannot use its non-formal observations and general discussions to support its basis at a later point for an immediate dismissal for just cause. It cannot also claim a culminating incident without having clearly shared that unacceptable behaviors were building up and the employee's job was in jeopardy.
Since X-treme Packaging did not have just cause for termination, it was a wrongful dismissal and the employee was entitled to his award of statutory severance pay.
My Take
From my review of the facts in this decision, I think it could have gone either way. For instance, the fact that this employee had been disciplined just a month previously for yelling at a supervisor is a significant point in favor of just cause. This was also a relatively short-service employee, so the greater protection afforded long-service employees would have be applicable to help his position.
However, the fact remains he did not actually get a serious warning prior to his dismissal.
This case should serve as a reminder for employers that failing to properly warn an employee can be fatal to a defence of just cause for dismissal.
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