Back To Basics: An Employee's Duty To Mitigate In A Wrongful Dismissal

The recent British Columbia Court of Appeal decision, Steinebach v. Clean Energy Compression Corp., provides a thorough overview of how the duty to mitigate impacts the assessment of damages in wrongful dismissal cases.

Steinebach was terminated from his employment as a salesman with Clean Energy Compression Corp. after he did not accept the company's offer to take on a newly-created position. He initially sought similar employment in a senior level role in a comparable company, but was unsuccessful. After taking steps to obtain employment as a financial investment advisor, he began working approximately eight months after his termination.

At trial, the court found that Steinebach had been wrongfully dismissed and was entitled to 16 months' notice. However, the trial judge also found that Steinebach did not adequately mitigate his damages because he had quickly chosen to abandon his efforts to find a new job in his previous area of employment and instead focused