B.C. employers sue workers for quitting without required notice

B.C.'s small claims tribunal has weighed in on two cases where employers attempted to sue workers who allegedly quit without providing the notice required by their contracts.

B.C.'s small claims tribunal has weighed in on two cases where employers attempted to sue workers who allegedly quit without providing the notice required by their contracts.

Decisions in both cases were posted online Monday – and while the circumstances were different, the tribunal dismissed the employers' claims in both cases for the same reason.

Quitting without giving the required notice, the decisions say, can legally constitute a "breach of contract," making an employer eligible to sue for damages.

But – and this proved to be the deciding factor in each case – there must be evidence that the worker's departure resulted in the claimed damages.

In the first case, John Fleming Insurance Agency was asking the tribunal to compensate the company $3,000 after Davik Mehta, a broker, quit with no notice in 2022.

Tribunal member Christopher C. Rivers said, in his decision, that the issue of whether Mehta had breached the contract was ultimately irrelevant because the company had failed to prove its case.

"Damages for breach of contract are generally meant to put the innocent party in the same position as if the contract had been performed as agreed," the decision explains.\