– Managers refusal to comply with directive from boss didn’t amount to misconduct.

Daniel A. Lublin, Toronto Metro News
Wednesday, July 4, 2007

About to leave on a much needed vacation, Evo Watson thought she had made plans for just about everything.  But when her boss demanded that she cancel her trip at the last minute, she realized the only contingency she had overlooked – was her own dismissal.

Both employers and employees should glean the following rules:

• where an employee intentionally disregards a clear, lawful and unequivocal order from a superior, her immediate dismissal may be justified;
• employers are entitled to instruct employees to perform given tasks.  These instructions are more likely to become unreasonable where they have little or no connection to the fulfillment of a condition of employment.
• An employee with a blemished disciplinary past may curry less favour with teh employer – or the judge – when it comes to assessing his or her degree of insubordination.

For more information, read Vacation Plans Costs Worker her Job

Daniel A. Lublin is a Toronto Employment Lawyer specializing in the law of discipline and dismissal.  He can be reached at [email protected] or via his Website www.toronto-employmentlawyer.com