In Fredrickson v Newtech Dental Labs ( 2015 BCCA 357) the Court of Appeal found that an employee in a small four person company was not required to accept the offer of re-employment after she was laid off because :
a) The offer of re-emeployment did not fully compensate her for the time that she was laid off ( it was short a months pay )
b) The trust between the parties was broken in that the employer had secretly taped conversations that he had had with the plaintiff on two occasions and when the owner told a co-worker that he thought that the plaintiff would be too embarrassed to accept his re-employment offer.
The Court emphasized that trust was a two way street.
“29. Independent of the above, I am of the view that the trial judge was clearly wrong in failing to reflect the mutuality of trust, in the context of this employment, inherent in the relationship between employer and employee. The pertinent question when mitigation is in issue was described by Justice Bastarache as whether “a reasonable person in the employee’s position would have accepted the employer’s offer”. To determine whether this is so, in my view requires a judge to consider the full nature of the employment relationship. This includes the obligations of good faith or fidelity on the part of both the employer and employee, consistent with the nature of the work and the workplace. Most frequently questions of good faith, fidelity and fair dealing are questions that arise in the context of allegations of cause for the employee’s dismissal. The integrity of the employment relationship goes further, however. Just as trust of an employee, in the circumstances of the employment, is an important aspect for the employer, so too trust of the employer is important.”
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