Employers owe a duty to treat employees honestly.  They must honour the employment contract.  They must treat employees with respect (no discrimination, humiliation, etc.).  And when they fire employees, they must follow the contract and the law.

Recently Prospera Credit Union chose to violate its duty to treat employees honestly.  Brenda Moffatt started as a casual employee of Prospera in July 2018.  By April 2019, Prospera was pleased enough to give her a permanent part-time job (37.5 hr/wk).  The same month, Prospera gave Ms. Moffatt a full-time position to replace someone on parental leave until 31 July 2020.  Then she would return to her part-time position.  Her contract said she could not solicit Prospera clients, staff, or contractors for 6 months after leaving, and that she’d get a month’s pay or severance for every year of service.

On 20 May 2020, Prospera marched Ms. Moffatt across the lobby of the open branch, with customers and other staff watching, and fired her.  They said they were “restructuring” to reduce human tellers and replace them with on-line “services”.  They tried to force Ms. Moffatt to sign a release which included only 2 weeks’ severance pay, and which prohibited her from soliciting Prospera clients, staff, or contractors for 12 months.  They said the severance pay “in accordance with” the Employment Standards Act.  It wasn’t. 

Prospera fired about 100 other staff with similar letters.

Ms. Moffatt fought back.  She hired lawyer Amelia Cline of Sorenson Smith: https://www.sorensensmith.com/our-people/.  They sued Prospera for wrongful dismissal.  On 17 December 2021 Madam Justice Ardith Walkem ordered Prospera to pay Ms. Moffat 3 months’ salary in lieu of notice.  She found Prospera’s termination letter had 3 “errors” – all to Prospera’s benefit (As Auric Goldfinger said: “Three times is enemy action.”).  Justice Walkem ordered Prospera to pay Ms., Moffatt a further 2.5 months’ salary as punitive damage: https://canlii.ca/t/jld9k. 

All the other Prospera employees fired with similar letter have 2 years from the firing date to sue Prospera.  The Clearly best step is to call Amelia Cline.  I’m not sure a credit union can wet its pants.  It might be fun to see if it can.  If you’re a customer of Prospera, you may wish to let them know how you feel about how they treat staff.