FPSLREB Decisions

Resignation - Allegation of resignation forced by the employer - Jurisdiction - the grievor worked in the House of Commons under a contract of employment that was renewed at each session of Parliament from February 1995 on - in her grievance, the grievor stated that she was the subject of a disguised discharge and that she had been forced to sign a letter of resignation and a release for the employer by her senior manager - the grievor stated that she signed the letter of resignation against her will because she was threatened with being charged with fraud for giving her spouse protective footwear that had been given to her by the employer - the employer entered a preliminary objection to the adjudicator's jurisdiction to hear the grievance and submitted that the grievance was inadmissible because the grievor had resigned and had signed a legal release in which she gave up any remedies except those stipulated in the release - the adjudicator concluded that she had to determine her jurisdiction to hear the grievance since the grievor claimed to be the subject of a disguised discharge - the adjudicator referred to the principles set out in McNab in which the adjudicator recognized that the facts had to be examined in order to determine whether there was a subjective intent to resign and an objective act, in Bodner in which the adjudicator referred to the test that the employer had to have acted coercively and, in Arsenault in which the employee had to choose between dismissal and resigning - according to the adjudicator, the grievor was not the subject of any threat or coercion and she had the choice between a dismissal with a disciplinary record or a resignation without a disciplinary record and with good references - the adjudicator pointed out that the grievor had received training in staff relations and the Staff Relations Handbook and she therefore knew or ought to have known that she could challenge her dismissal by way of grievance - the adjudicator concluded that she did not have jurisdiction to remedy the mistake in judgement that led an employee to leave her job voluntarily. Grievance dismissed. Cases cited: McNab (166-2-14343); Bodner (166-2-21332); Arsenault (166-2-23957).