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ARTICLE · 12 JUNE 2024

Unreasonable Employer Actions Violate Alberta Employee Rights

Bow River Law
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ATCO Electric Ltd. v Canadian Energy Workers Association, 2024 CanLII 37038 (AB GAA) is a recent decision by arbitrator James Casey in which an employer demanded a post-incident drug test...

CanadaEmployment and HR
Chris Jones
Chris Jones
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ATCO Electric Ltd. v Canadian Energy Workers Association, 2024 CanLII 37038 (AB GAA) is a recent decision by arbitrator James Casey in which an employer demanded a post-incident drug test and took further steps which unreasonably breached the employee's privacy rights, failed to comply with ATCO's safety obligations, and constituted an unreasonable exercise of management rights in the application of ATCO's Alcohol & Drug Standard for Employees.

The decision highlights that just because an employer can take a particular action, if they do so in a patently unreasonable way they may be exposing themselves to damages.

Facts

The following is a summary of the facts as found by Arbitrator Casey:

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