Date Closed

August 10, 2021

Lead Office

Toronto

On August 10, 2021, the Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba granted a motion by an employer (Ericsson Canada Inc.) to stay a wrongful dismissal action brought by a former employee. In dispute was whether the former employee’s entitlement to pay in lieu of reasonable notice included amounts that the employee would have received under the employer’s sales incentive program. 

In granting the employer’s motion, the court applied two important recent judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada: Matthews v. Ocean Nutrition Canada Ltd., 2020 SCC 26 (on the exclusion of amounts representing bonus and incentive payments from damages for wrongful dismissal), and TELUS Communications Inc. v. Wellman, 2019 SCC 19 (on the enforceability of arbitration agreements). Matthews and Wellman had not previously been applied in the same decision. (McCarthy Tétrault LLP was counsel in the Supreme Court of Canada in both Matthews and Wellman.) 

Ericsson Canada Inc. provides information and communication technology to service providers that enable the full value of connectivity. 

McCarthy Tétrault LLP represented Ericsson Canada Inc. with a team led by Adam Goldenberg that included Tim Lawson, Ryan Plener, Margaret Gavins (Labour and Employment) and Colleen Bonnyman and Sebastian Cooper(Litigation).