Edmonton Employment Law

Last week, we discussed the probationary dismissal of Ms. Dalskog .  Yesterday, another similar case was released by the Alberta Provincial Court, again out of Lethbridge . Mr. Christensen was hired as a senior accountant by Tollestrup - a group of companies that operates a number of Tim Hortons franchises.  He began working on July 6, 2017, and was dismissed as of September 27, 2017. There are parallels to the Dalskog case:  Like Ms. Dalskog, Mr. Christensen argued that he was not appropriately trained and did not receive the necessary support or feedback from the employer.  In this case, however, the Court did not accept that position. The employer argued that the termination decision was motivated by errors and missed deadlines in Mr. Christensen's work, and that he was not the right "fit" for the organization. On the Court's summary of the evidence, the conclusions are not surprising:  On the one hand, Christensen justified omissions in his work on t...

Ms. Dalskog was hired as Executive Director of the Crowsnest Pass Ecomuseum Trust Society in April 2017, pursuant to a contract that specified a six month probationary period.  A little over 5 months later, she was dismissed. The reasons were myriad.  There was conflict between her and some of the Board members, and they were not happy with her performance, including that she missed the deadline to apply for an $18,000 grant, and there were budget overruns in certain areas.  However, there were other important facts as well:  The Society had promised on-the-job training, which was never provided.  The Society had promised to hire a bookkeeper, because they understood when hiring Ms. Dalskog that she did not have bookkeeping experience, and they failed to do so - which meant that a large portion of her time was spend working with the books, instead of the job that she was actually hired to do.  She required and sought advice and direction from Board member...