Toronto successfully represented Canada Post in a hearing on a professional engineer negligence/ incompetence matter

Our Toronto office successfully represented Canada Post Corporation on a high profile matter spanning more than 48 days of hearings, plus written submissions, relating to a long-service professional mechanical engineer who was a member of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. The case is significant because it upheld the termination of employment of a professional engineer for negligence / incompetence.

PSAC alleged, among other things, that Canada Post was prohibited from terminating for poor performance and was compelled to consider demotion as aprecondition thereto.  Canada Post successfully disputed this contention before an Arbitrator, maintaining that the Corporation’s determination was not so constrained, particularly in the case of an accredited professional, where ample coaching and counselling was carried out, and where the job security consequences of continued sub-par performance were clearly articulated.  It is also noteworthy that the testimony of the expert witness retained on behalf of Canada Post was relied on quite extensively by the Arbitrator, who conversely discounted the testimony of PSAC’s expert witness.

The Arbitrator’s Decision was released on November 29, 2018.

The Team included John Mastoras and Nicole Buchanan (Toronto).