Alberta company's meeting minutes contradict discipline record
An Alberta employer lost on every ground of its employment standards appeal after questionable documentation practices undermined its just cause termination defense.
This ended up costing the company over $3,400 in wages owed to a former employee.
In her Jan. 16, 2026 decision, Vice-Chair Karen Scott of the Alberta Employment Standards Appeal Board found that Hillbilly Haulin' Ltd.'s discipline records — which appeared altered and contained misspelled employee names — failed to prove misconduct by Jason Lee Osbak, who worked for the company from January to April 12, 2024.
The tribunal identified serious credibility problems with four employee discipline records the company submitted as evidence of poor performance. Osbak's common-law partner testified that the records “appeared to have words, including the employee's name, ‘whited out’ and replaced with information about the Respondent,” suggesting they were created after termination to justify the dismissal.
The documentation problems compounded. Osbak's name was spelled incorrectly in different ways on each discipline record, none were signed by the employee, and two separate records both claimed to be his “third warning” on the same termination date of April 12. Most damaging, one discipline record stated Osbak arrived late at 10:30 a.m. on March 30, 2024, but the company's own safety meeting minutes showed he attended a meeting...
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