In Cousins v QEC, ( 2016 NUCJ 01) the Nunavut Court of Justice held that because the Employer had a policy on progressive dismissal that did not include demotion as a disciplinary tool, when the Employer demoted the Maintenance Supervisor responsible for 14 plants to a non-supervisory position, this constituted a constructive dismissal. The 16 year employee received 18 months notice, but had it reduced to 11 months due to poor mitigation efforts.
The Court refused to read into the Discipline Policy an implied term that the Employer had the right to use a temporary demotion as part of its discipline tool chest.
Quere, if there had not been a Discipline Policy, would the Court have allowed the disciplinary demotion where they found that discipline was warranted ?
What if the Employer could show that they had just cause to terminate the employment but instead chose to only demote the employee? Would the Employer be penalized for not being tougher on the employee?
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