In O’Driscoll v Suncor Energy 2026 ABKB 43 , Justice McQuire had a situation where the employer fired a shift supervisor for sleeping on the job.
The Plaintiff worked at an oil sands operation. He was assigned a company truck to do his job which included visiting various location within the job site .
The Defendant conducted an investigation of the Plaintiff because they noticed for lengthy periods of time on a certain night shift the GPS in the Plaintiff’s truck showed that the truck was stationary.
The Plaintiff gave an explanation that he thought it was important that night to watch one operation under way, so that is why his truck remained stationary. He denied sleeping on the job.
An investigation was commenced by a Suncor HR person who concluded that the Plaintiff had been sleeping on the job. He was fired.
The Judge was very critical of the investigation and accused the HR person of ” tunnel vision” in that she viewed the evidence that supported her conclusions in a radically different way than the evidence that did not support her conclusion.
The Judge found that the investigation was defective in the following ways :
1. It ignored the GPS evidence which showed that other supervisors had parked their trucks within a few feet of the Plaintiff’s truck and none of them testified that the Plaintiff was sleeping.
2. The Defendant had destroyed evidence of radio communications that night even though the Plaintiff testified that he had many numerous radio calls that night during the time they accused him of sleeping.
3. The investigator ignored evidence of other supervisors who said that they interacted with Plaintiff during the hours in question.
The Judge awarded the Plaintiff 16 months notice.
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