“Had evidence come to light after the fact that one of these people was in fact there at the meal, or the other employee had okayed the characterization of the expenses, that could have very much changed the outcome,” Hillis said, adding that when establishing just cause for dismissal in such a case he would advise employers to interview “every single employee and get statements from every single employee who is implicated in this issue, one way or the other, so that you’ve got as full of a sense of the evidence as you can.”
Dishonesty: just cause for dismissal
The main basis for the just cause dismissal decision hinged on the sales exec’s refusal to admit the wrongdoing although given more than one opportunity to do so. His testimony was “vague, equivocal, and lacked genuineness and veracity,” according to the court’s decision, which concluded that he was “struggling to find a way around his having been caught in a deception of his employer.”
The executive’s employment contracts outlined that “falsifying records or information” were grounds for immediate dismissal. However, he alleged that the CFO had advised him to write incorrect names on a receipt in order to simplify the process, which the CFO denied, telling courts that he “assumed that the names on the receipts were accurate.”
The sales exec testified that he was never advised that there were any parameters around submitting receipts for alcohol consumed during business events. The CFO said that his process was reviewing receipts and approving them if “nothing was out of line.” This ambiguity may have been avoided with clearer policies, Hillis said.
“You don’t need a policy to say you’re not allowed to steal from your employer,” he said. “But it is always good to have policies around expenses and expense submission processes, and when you have those in place, that certainly does help you deal with these kinds of circumstances in a cleaner fashion.”