Foreman had a little landscaping done on the side at his home
This instalment of You Make the Call features a supervisor who got some freebies from suppliers and received some questionable emails at work.
Claude Poliquin was a senior production foreman for Devon Canada, an oil and gas extraction company, in Lloydminster, Alta. Devon had a code of conduct that prohibited accepting or soliciting gifts or favours and a conflict of interest policy regarding the company’s suppliers. Poliquin had acknowledged, at Devon’s request, that he had read and accepted these policies and didn’t have any disciplinary problems over most of his 20 years with Devon. Devon considered Poliquin a valued employee who did a good job and he received several positive performance appraisals during his time with the company.
Devon learned that Poliquin received landscaping services at his own home from one of its suppliers. The company excavated his yard for no pay, which Poliquin claimed was done out of friendship. The supplier’s owner indicated Poliquin was both friend and a business associate and he felt pressured to excavate Poliquin’s yard because of his position at Devon.
It turned out another of Devon’s suppliers had also come to Poliquin’s residence and took two large truckloads of excavated materials to the dump. Poliquin said he asked the supplier to arrange for the removal but didn’t realize the supplier went ahead and did it. The second supplier also delivered a load of sand and gravel Poliquin had requested through one of his employees.
Devon also learned Poliquin had received several pornographic emails and forwarded some to other employees, which was also contrary to the employee code of conduct. Poliquin deleted most of them and said the few he did forward were only jokes and fairly harmless. He also claimed he had only been warned not to access pornography on the Internet and nothing had been said about emails.
Devon terminated Poliquin’s employment for violating its code of conduct and conflict of interest policy. Poliquin claimed wrongful dismissal, saying termination was too harsh for a longstanding employee with a good record.
You Make the Call
Was termination too harsh for an employee of Poliquin’s standing?
OR
Was termination appropriate for Poliquin’s misconduct?
If you said termination was appropriate, you’re right. The court found Poliquin’s actions constituted serious misconduct. Poliquin not only received landscaping services from two of Devon’s suppliers, he actively solicited the services and used a subordinate employee to co-ordinate. Devon’s code of conduct specifically stated employees must avoid behavour that could create conflict between their job duties and their personal interests.
The code also stated violations could be considered serious enough to warrant termination. The court found Poliquin’s solicitation and receipt of landscaping services from Devon suppliers to be serious enough to constitute just cause for dismissal.
The court also found Poliquin’s receipt and forwarding of pornographic emails was a serious misuse of company equipment that could have negative effects on Devon’s reputation and work environment, particularly when a senior supervisor did it. This violated not only the code of conduct, but the trust that was required for someone of Poliquin’s responsibilities. The warning against accessing Internet pornography could reasonably be assumed to apply to emails as well, said the court.
The court dismissed Poliquin’s wrongful dismissal action through a summary judgment.
