Workers cannot be fired without a justification in the non-unionized federally regulated sector, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled 6-3 on Thursday.
The ruling potentially affects thousands of employees in the federally-regulated sector, which includes banks, telecommunications companies and some Crown corporations.
The case was initiated by Joseph Wilson, a procurement supervisor for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) after he was fired in 2009. He claimed his dismissal was in reprisal for blowing the whistle on corrupt procurement practices at the Crown corporation. AECL gave him nearly six months severance pay, which was more than the minimum of 18 days the-then 38-year-old was entitled to by federal law for the four years he had been employed at the corporation.
In 1978, Ottawa changed the Canada Labour Code to give non-unionized federally-regulated workers the right to challenge a dismissal they felt was unjust. But the law did not define the meaning of “unjust.” Mr. Wilson argued that Parliament intended to give these workers job-security protection similar to that enjoyed by unionized workers, who must not be fired without “just cause” – such as misconduct, incompetence or conflict of interest. “
The text, the context, the statements of the Minister of Labour when the legislation was introduced, and the views of the overwhelming majority of arbitrators and labour law scholars, confirm that the entire purpose of the statutory scheme was to ensure that non‑unionized federal employees would be entitled to protection from being dismissed without cause,” Justice Rosalie Abella wrote for the majority.
AECL contended that it had the right to dismiss Mr. Wilson without providing a justification for it. “The Code recognizes the right of employers to dismiss without cause,” AECL said in a filing with the Supreme Court. But it added that the recognition is implicit.
A labour adjudicator who heard Mr. Wilson’s complaint ruled in his favour. But AECL appealed the ruling to the Federal Court of Canada, which ruled against Mr. Wilson. The Federal Court of Appeal upheld that ruling, and Mr. Wilson appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Canadian Labour Congress intervened to argue in support of a federally-regulated worker’s right to protection from being fired without just cause, similar to the right that unionized workers have.
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Originally Posted by killramos
