Amandi Esonwanne

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 79 (the "Union") brought a motion to find the City of Toronto (the "City") in contempt of an arbitrator's award, which had been filed as a court order.

The award ordered the City to reinstate a grievor with compensation.

The City reinstated the grievor but reserved the right to seek repayment of wages and benefits if its ongoing judicial review application of the award was successful.

The Union argued this reservation constituted a conditional reinstatement and contempt.

The court dismissed the motion, finding that the City's reservation of a future legal right, without imposing it as a condition of reinstatement, did not amount to deliberate and willful disobedience of the clear and unequivocal terms of the award.

The plaintiff sought summary judgment alleging constructive dismissal after the employer reorganized its transportation department and reassigned her from an operational engineering role to a largely administrative position while maintaining the same salary and title.

The court applied the constructive dismissal framework from Potter v. New Brunswick Legal Aid Services Commission and assessed whether a reasonable person would view the changes as substantially altering essential terms of employment.

It found that the reassignment fundamentally changed the nature and quality of the plaintiff’s duties from technical operational work to administrative functions, effectively eliminating the role she had performed for decades.

The court concluded that the employer’s unilateral change amounted to constructive dismissal.

Applying the Bardal factors, the court awarded 26 months’ reasonable notice and rejected the employer’s argument that the plaintiff failed to mitigate.