Employee was hired with understanding she would take courses towards accounting designation
A British Columbia First Nations government did not unjustly dismiss an employee by demoting her because the employee didn’t fulfil the terms of her employment agreement, a Canada Labour Code adjudicator has ruled.
Angela Percival was hired by the Nisga’a Lisms Government in New Aiyansh, B.C., to be an assistant controller on Aug. 1, 2007. The position required a professional accounting designation and the employee policy manual for the Nisga’a Lisms stipulated employees must continue to meet their stated job requirements as a condition of employment.
Percival didn’t have an accounting designation but she was hired on the condition that she would obtain it, upon which she would receive a salary increase. She was expected to attain the designation within two years and the Nisga’a Lisms paid for some accounting courses to get her started.
Percival experienced some difficulties in her job and the Nisga’a hired an accounting consultant for a few days to train her. She failed the exams in some of her courses and by October 2008, she wasn’t making progress towards her professional accounting designation. The Nisga’a gave Percival a letter on Oct. 24 indicating that failure to pursue the designation would affect her position.
Percival agreed in November 2008 to complete an accelerated one-year program followed by two years of a strategic leadership program. The Nisga’a paid more than $4,000 for her enrolment and created a written employment agreement that stated she would continue as assistant controller on the condition she complete the certified management accountant (CMA) program within three years of Oct. 24, 2008.
A performance evaluation in March 2009 indicated Percival required further development and her supervisor worked with her to review her work and tutor her. However, in July 2009 she was unable to complete required exams and withdrew from the accelerated program. Percival wanted to prepare for the next entrance exam in April 2010, but her employer was concerned that would make 2012 the earliest possible achievement of CMA designation, longer than the agreed-upon time.
The Nisga’a found it could not continue to wait and felt she needed to concentrate on “core accounting experience” to improve her job performance. It decided to lower her job classification to senior accounting clerk with slightly more pay than the new job’s normal rate. It also left her vacation entitlement intact. Her new position would be effective Jan. 25, 2010, when she would be moved from her office to a cubicle.
Percival took sick leave after receiving the news, sending a doctor’s note indicating she would be off work until Dec. 31. She also filed a complaint of unjust dismissal due to a permanent demotion, decrease in pay and movement from an office to a cubicle.
The adjudicator found Percival knew an accounting designation was a condition of employment when she was hired and when she needed more time after failing her first attempt, the Nisga’a gave it to her. However, after the Nisga’a extended the timeframe from two to four years, it was evident that she wasn’t going to achieve the required goal in that time. At the earliest, it would take five years after her hiring before Percival could achieve the designation.
