The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a 24-month damage award to a long-service nurse in a doctor’s office who believed that she had been fired during a hostile meeting with her employer.
The doctor for whom she worked wanted her to look into electronic medical records (EMR). She was overwhelmed with a heavy workload and did not get to it. The doctor angrily confronted her in a meeting, at which the doctor’s wife was also present. The court found that the doctor, in his anger, said, “Go! Get out! I am so sick of coming into this office every day and looking at your ugly face.” He also pointed at her, shouted at her, accused her of being resistant to change, and used profanity during that meeting. The employee, distraught, left the meeting and never returned to work. The employer treated her as having quit. The employee sued for wrongful dismissal.
