Recent Alberta Case Underscores the Costs of Investigation Missteps for Employers
The recent Alberta case of O’Driscoll v. Suncor Energy Inc., 2026 ABKB 43, highlights yet again that failing to conduct fair and comprehensive workplace investigations can result in costly damages awards.
Background:
In this case, the employee, Michael O’Driscoll, had been employed at Suncor since 2010 andwas a shift supervisor with significant supervisory duties. In January of 2021, during Mr. O’Driscoll’s night shift, GPS logs showed that his truck had been stationary on the worksite from 11.45 pm to 6.53 am. When asked about this, Mr. O’Driscoll explained that he stayed in a “pit” area to oversee a hydraulic shovel. However, Suncor suspected that Mr. O’Driscoll had been sleeping on the job and sent him home pending an internal investigation. Suncor’s Human Resources department then conducted an internal investigation and about 3 weeks later, Mr. O’Driscoll was dismissed for cause for sleeping on the job.
“Tunnel Vision” in the Workplace Investigation Cannot Prove Just Cause
Mr. O’Driscoll commenced an action seeking damages for wrongful dismissal. The court found that Suncor’s HR representative conducted the investigation with “tunnel vision” by focusing narrowly on certain aspects of the accusations against Mr. O’Driscoll while failing to explore other plausible and exculpatory explanations and evidence:
- The investigator ignored an interview with another supervisor who had stopped to talk to Mr. O’Driscoll during the night in question;
- The investigator ignored reliable GPS data that showed that other supervisors were with Mr. O’Driscoll from midnight until 3.00 am that night.
- The investigator ignored critical dispatch records which showed numerous calls over the night from Mr. O’Driscoll and then destroying these specific records.
- The investigator accepted second hand or hearsay evidence when it supported her assumption that Mr. O’Driscoll was sleeping on the job and improperly rejected other reasonable evidence that challenged her initial assumption.
The Court sharply criticized the employer’s investigation and found that at most, it had proven that Mr. O’Driscoll’s vehicle had sat stationary for periods of time, and not that Mr. O’Driscoll had been sleeping on the job, such that the employer could not establish just cause for summary dismissal. The Court awarded Mr. O’Driscoll damages for wrongful dismissal, which amounted to $298,000 less mitigation income of $143,000.
Key Takeaway: Unfair Investigations Create Liability
This case is a timely reminder that poor/mishandled investigations can be costly for employers on many levels. The courts are quick to critique procedurally unfair investigations, and though investigations are most commonly conducted in the context of for-cause dismissals, judges will not find cause for termination based on one-sided or incomplete investigations. Legal guidance on process and evidence before or during a workplace investigation can help ensure a fair, defensible process, and the cost of seeking timely legal advice to conduct a proper investigation is usually minor compared to the costs and risk inherent in a wrongful dismissal action where an investigation has been rushed or mismanaged.
Our firm can assist with conducting workplace investigations or with providing timely, practical, and cost-effective legal support to ensure that a workplace investigation is fair, thorough and defensible before any decision-maker. We routinely advise our clients on best practices, potential pitfalls, and process issues and partnering with us early can ensure that any workplace investigation is worth the time and effort that it inevitably requires.
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Israel Foulon Wong LLP is one of Canada’s leading employment and labour law firms. We have been helping employers, from startups to national and multinational brands, navigate these drafting and implementation challenges in real time. Our partners, Peter Israel, Chris Foulon, Carita Wong, Alex Van Kralingen, Krista Kais-Prial, Behzad Hassibi, Katherine Chau, Mark Repath and associates, Vibhu Gairola and Domenica Moran have over 125 years of collective experience in assisting clients with employment and labour law issues.