The Law of Just Cause in the Aftermath of
McKinley v. BC Tel
Date:
June 8 2005
The decision of the Supreme Court of Canada (the “Court”) in McKinley v. BC Tel, [2001] 2 S.C.R. 161 (“McKinley”), is a seminal decision in Canadian employment law that redefines “just cause” for dismissal. The Court adopted the “contextual approach” for determining whether an employee’s dishonesty constitutes just cause for dismissal and held that not all forms of dishonesty give rise to just cause for dismissal. McKinley represents a marked departure from a previous line of authority that did not make a distinction between forms of dishonesty.
This paper discusses how Canadian courts have applied McKinley in determining whether an employer has just cause for dismissal based on various forms of employee misconduct. A review of the decisions of Canadian courts since McKinley shows that while just cause for dismissal continues to exist, an employer must show that the misconduct was sufficiently serious to bring the employment contract to an end given the context in which the misconduct occurred.
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