An airline has been ordered to pay a former Marketing Manager more than $200,000 after a judge found it engaged in a campaign of “planned and deliberate” abusive conduct against him over a period of five years before and after his termination.
The 68-year-old Marketing Manager was dismissed for just cause, after 10 years at the company. But his trouble began about a year before, when a new general manager was appointed and he was subject to several disciplinary actions and two demotions, culminating in his firing for alleged incompetence and “time theft.”
The man was disciplined for attending industry events without approval, before his marketing department was eliminated and he was shunted to front-line service roles, where he was accused of being too slow in time-sensitive environments where he had no previous experience.
At trial, the judge dismissed the employer’s allegations of incompetence, concluding that “mere dissatisfaction with the employee’s performance is insufficient to ground just cause.”
In addition, the judge found that the employer had attempted to manufacture a case for just cause against the man or force him to resign. Even after his dismissal, the employer’s bad-faith conduct continued via its “hardball” approach to the litigation, including tactical delays and a series of serious, false allegations in its defence, including that the plaintiff had sexually harassed a colleague, conspired with his former boss to defraud the company and stolen several of its large model airplanes.
The judge ordered the employer to pay the employee $58,000 in severance based on a 20-month notice period, plus $50,000 for mental distress due to manner of dismissal. In addition, the judge found that the employer’s bad faith conduct against a vulnerable worker justified a punitive damages award of $100,000.
Tap the link to read the judge’s decision:
