Verbal WFH arrangement was an express contract term, BC Court of Appeal rules
A British Columbia employer's decision to order a longtime director back to the office five days a week has cost it 19 months' pay in lieu of notice, after the BC Court of Appeal ruled on May 11, 2026, that her verbal work-from-home arrangement was a binding term of her employment contract. In reasons penned by Chief Justice Marchand, the court dismissed Cressey Construction Corporation's appeal and upheld a finding that the company constructively dismissed Tracy Parolin, an 18-year employee, when it revoked her remote work privileges without reasonable notice. The ruling sharpens the stakes for Canadian employers rolling out return-to-office mandates where remote arrangements have quietly hardened into contractual rights over years of informal practice.
Parolin started at Cressey in 2005 as a Development Manager and was promoted to Director of Marketing in April 2018. Following the birth of twins in 2012, one with a significant health issue, she returned to work in April 2013 on a four-day-a-week schedule that allowed her to manage childcare. Once her children started kindergarten in 2017, she had flexibility to pick up and drop off her children five days a week.
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, Cressey employees worked from home. Within a few months, they returned to the office. Parolin did not, citing her child's health.
She continued working from home with the approval of two successive...
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