Failure to accept reasonable re-employment offer will ‘considerably reduce the amount of severance'
An Alberta court has dismissed a worker’s wrongful dismissal lawsuit because the worker didn’t accept a reasonable offer to return to work at the same job.
The worker, 75, was an unlicensed mechanic for New West Truck Centres, a heavy-duty truck sales and service company in Red Deer, Alta. He joined New West in 2004 he performend inspection work on new trucks before they were delivered to customers. He had a written employment contract with no termination provisions.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, New West’s business was slow and the worker often spent the day cleaning the shop rather than working on trucks. In September 2023, he inquired whether it would be possible to be laid off.
The superintendent called the director of corporate services and told her that the worker wanted to retire but he wanted to be able to collect employment insurance (EI). They decided to offer the worker a letter of retirement with four months’ working notice.
On Oct. 16, the worker was called into the superintendent's office and was given a letter titled “Working notice of your retirement” that provided four months’ working notice for the end of his employment. The worker was confused and angry, because he hadn’t said he was retiring and had only inquired about being laid off.
Providing the letter of retirement wasn’t an advisable course of action for the...
In 1995, Princess Diana made broadcasting history and shaped the future of the Royal Family when she sat down with Martin Bashir for an episode of BBC's Panorama. Three decades on, the interview c...