Under the Labour Standards Act [Act], an employee who believes that he has been dismissed without a good and sufficient cause may, under certain conditions, file a complaint that could allow him to receive substantial compensation or even cause his reinstatement. However, “senior managerial personnel” are excluded from this regime.
The question is then, how can you tell senior managerial personnel?
In a recent decision (Delgadillo c. Blinds To Go Inc., 2017 QCCA 818), the Court of Appeal of Quebec affirmed a decision to deny a claim for unjust dismissal by ruling that the complainant was a senior manager under s 3, para 6 of the Act.
Criteria on which the Court relied include:
- the employee took part in the elaboration of the company’s strategies and policies;
- he was in direct contact with the company’s owners and could discuss these strategies and policies with them or make suggestions without having to go through a go-between;
- he was the highest-ranking person in the business, immediately below the president and the vice-chairman;
- he performed key tasks in the business and enjoyed considerable leeway in his job;
- he was one of the highest paid employees.
Despite the fact that the employee did not have general authority on the business and was in charge of only one of the company’s plants, he was still a senior manager.
The concept of senior managerial personnel is intrinsically restrictive: one should not interpret the definition so narrowly that the exclusion would apply only to the sole top manager in the business.
By Jacques Bélanger, from our Labour and Employment Law Group.