Implied management at B.C. fish farm ‘disastrous’
A defamatory letter about a British Columbia company by one of its employees was sufficient grounds to fire him, the B.C. Supreme Court has ruled.
Yingyi Chen was a hatchery technician at Sable Fish Canada, a hatchery and fish farm on Salt Spring Island. In late 2006, when Chen had been with Sable for about three years, he was promoted to production manager.
However, Sable wasn’t happy with Chen’s performance in the new role. It soon became apparent Chen didn’t have the people management skills or the administrative ability to be an effective manager. Sable management tried to help him improve and other employees also tried to assist, but by late 2007 he not only failed to improve but had become worse.
After Chen came back from a one-month vacation in January 2008, he seemed to be going through the motions and Sable felt he was putting its business at risk by not being engaged in his job. Chen was soon removed from his position and given another job.
Unfortunately, the change in responsibilities did nothing for Chen’s performance. His productivity continued to wane and he seemed to get more depressed. Sable reprimanded him more than once for poor performance.
In the spring of 2008, Sable was experiencing financial difficulties. It dismissed five employees to cut costs and tried to raise funds through a share offering to existing shareholders.
On May 6, 2008, the day the employees were fired, Chen — who was still employed with Sable and held shares in the company — sent a letter to 40 people, including shareholders, that attacked the company and its management. The letter accused Sable of unfairly demoting him and replacing him with someone who wasn’t qualified and incompetent. He went so far as to say an employee was almost killed under the new production manager’s instruction.
Chen implied there was strife among the staff and people were looking to get out and he concluded “management of the company is disastrous.” He warned the shareholders their money was being wasted and Sable was being mismanaged towards failure.
When Sable management learned about the letter the day after it was sent out, they fired him. They also learned Chen had taken workplace documents and items that were Sable property, including confidential emails and the payroll records of a Sable employee.
Chen’s letter made statements that were “exaggerated, disrespectful and inflammatory” without any regard to who would receive it, found the B.C. Supreme Court. He also went over the head of his supervisor and the Sable president, who had no inkling of what he was doing. This misconduct and lack of consideration for the company’s interests were serious enough to warrant dismissal, found the court.
“Mr. Chen’s letter was clearly an attempt, in part, to embarrass both management and the board of directors to the shareholders,” said the court.
Chen’s comments in the letter could be considered defamatory, said the court, but since he was a shareholder himself who had an interest in communicating his concerns to other shareholders, Chen had a “qualified privilege” that allowed him a certain degree of leeway.
For more information
•Chen v. Sable Fish Canada Inc., 2010 CarswellBC 799 (B.C. S.C.).
Jeffrey R. Smith is the editor of Canadian Employment Law Today, a publication that looks at workplace law from a business perspective. For more information, visit employmentlawtoday.com.
