Quebec Labour Tribunal Rules On Decision To Terminate A High Paid Employee

The Tribunal administratif du travail recently released Major c. Nova DM Média Canada inc., 2016 QCTAT 4423, which clarified an employer's burden of proof to demonstrate that an employee was laid off as part of an administrative reorganization rather than dismissed not for good and sufficient cause.

In this decision, administrative judge François Caron relied on Selianov c. ABPTS inc., 2010 QCCRT 0138, in order to explain the burden of proof in the context of redundancy dismissals. Selianov established that in case of dismissal, the employer must prove, on a balance of probabilities, that the economic or organizational reasons are real and that the termination of employment is a result of those reasons. Therefore, these reasons cannot be used as a pretext to conceal a constructive dismissal and the employer must establish that the criteria used to select the employee are objective, impartial and not based on the employee's subjective characteristics. Once this has