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December 21, 2021 - 6:30 AM
A B.C. judge has punished Prospera Credit Union after a former staffer sued the financial institution over the details in her termination letter which would see her get less severance pay than her contract stipulated.
According to a Dec. 17 B.C. Supreme Court decision, Brenda Moffatt was one of around 100 Prospera Credit Union staff laid off in 2020 after a merger with Westminster Savings Credit Union.
The decision says Moffatt worked at the Sardis branch of the credit union in Chilliwack for less than two years, starting with a casual contact and then moving to a part-time and ultimately full-time contract.
However, in May 2020 Moffatt was pulled into an office and given a letter of termination to sign.
The decision says she was "visibly upset" and remembers "crying profusely" at hearing the news.
The termination letter said she'd receive two weeks' pay as termination pay as per the B.C. Employment Standards Act. She was also offered a lump sum of $206 which was equivalent to 15 per cent of the termination pay in lieu of benefits.
However, Moffatt didn't sign the termination letter and instead sought legal advice.
Madam Justice Ardith Walkem found multiple errors in the termination letter and that Moffatt was due more severance pay than the letter suggested.
While much of the legal proceedings is taken up with the Justice deliberating the finer details of which contract applies to Moffatt's employment, and then how much payment in lieu of notice should be awarded, the Justice ultimately ruled Prospera owed its former employee three months severance pay, not the two weeks it had claimed in the termination letter.
The credit union argued the errors in the letter were an oversight caused when the company had had to write up 100 termination letters because of the multitude of layoffs.
Prospera also pointed out it soon corrected the letter once Moffatt's lawyer had pointed out the mistakes.
However, Justice Walkem didn't buy the excuse.
"(Prospera's) argument highlights the crux of the problem. In this instance, (Moffatt) hired a lawyer. Had she not, these errors may not have been discovered and corrected," the Justice said in the decision. "Given the circumstances of a termination, and its highly emotionally charged nature, it is equally as likely that (Moffatt) or others in her position, could have simply signed the termination letter."
The Justice goes on to say that Prospera's lack of attention to detail in the termination letter "especially where the errors fall so clearly in their favour" is "unacceptable."
With that, The Justice awarded punitive damages to punish the company for the errors in the letter.
"Had (Moffatt) not consulted a lawyer, her rights may have been significantly impacted. For the purposes of deterrence and denunciation, punitive damages in an amount equivalent to two-and-a-half months’ salary are assessed against (Prospera)," Justice Walkem said.
The former employee had also argued for aggravated damages because the credit union issued the letter during work time and Moffatt had had to walk past customers in tears while being escorted from the building.
"The termination could have been done in a way that lessened (Moffatt's) pain and suffering," the Justice says.
However, Justice Walkem found the credit union was not "unduly insensitive" in her dismissal.
"This termination occurred as part of a larger restructuring, and two other terminations had occurred earlier that morning at the same branch," the decision reads.
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