A Reminder To Terminated Employees: Yes – You Must Take Reasonable Steps to Find New Employment, Or Else…
By: Michelle QuinnIn Okano v. Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, 2022 BCSC 881, the plaintiff, Frances Okano, (“Ms. Okano”) was terminated from her employment at Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (“Cathay”) on December 11, 2020, after thirty-five years of service. She was sixty-one years of age at the time of termination, and held a middle management position.
She had spent her entire working career at Cathay.
One issue before the Court was whether Ms. Okano had failed to take reasonable steps to mitigate her loss during the reasonable notice period.
Her evidence before the Court was that she did nothing to search for new employment prior to February 2021. Ms. Okano created a résumé and started searching various online job sites for openings. She received several notifications and alerts of job postings, however, she considered that none of them were suitable for a person of her skill set.
Interestingly, Ms. Okano chose not to apply for any jobs in the airline industry because it was not “in her” anymore. From her perspective, she felt entitled, after thirty-five years, to go down a different career path. She was not interested in going back into travel or the airline industry.
By the time of trial, Ms. Okano had applied for fifty positions and attended eight interviews, none of which resulted in an offer of employment.
Ultimately, the Court found that Ms. Okano did not take reasonable steps to find alternative employment, and stated that her attempts to find new employment can best be described as “passive”.
The following are key passages from the Court:
The Court awarded Ms. Okano twenty-four months of reasonable notice (salary) with a reduction of three months on account of her failure to mitigate her losses.
If you have been terminated and need advice, or have any questions about this decision and mitigation generally, please contact Michelle Quinn, Partner, in the Employment and Human Rights Group at mquinn@rbs.ca or call at 604.661.9229.
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The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines across the country has brought with it both the hope of return to normalcy, as well as concerns about infringement of privacy and human rights through mandatory vaccination in the workplace. How will vaccinations impact the workplace? Can employers implement mandatory vaccination policies in the workplace? In this blog post, we analyze the existing law on mandatory vaccination and what we anticipate will be permitted in the workplace with respect to the COVID-19 vaccine.
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In Part 1: Duties of Loyalty, Good Faith, Fidelity and Confidence Owed by All Departing Employees, published on March 10, 2023, we highlighted the importance of understanding the duties of loyalty, good faith, fidelity, and confidence that all departing employees (no matter how junior they may be) owe to their former employer. When the departing employee is a senior employee (i.e., an officer of the employer, a member of top management or a key employee), that relationship gives rise to additional fiduciary duties which arise, even if they are not set out in a written employment agreement.
