“Employers are wise to remember that their pre-termination conduct will be scrutinized, and will be taken into account in any award of damages by the courts, so they need to be aware that all of the actions that they take vis-a-vis the employee will have an impact on any awards that are made to the employee at the end of a trial.”
So says Christopher Andree, partner and past co-leader of the Employment, Labour and Equalities Practice Group at Gowlings in Kitchener, Ont., after an Ontario employer was ordered to pay a fired employee more than half-a-million dollars in wrongful dismissal damages including aggravated and punitive damages.