Workplace Investigations

Boucher v Wal-Mart 2014

This is an example of the principles reviewed here, showing the need to conduct a fair investigation given allegations of serious wrongdoing.

In this case, the Ontario Court of Appeal made substantive revisions to the original jury award which included a punitive damage award of $1 million against the company.

The plaintiff asserted that she was severely mistreated by her manager following her refusal to follow his directive to misstate the temperature records of certain food storage cases.

She did report her concerns to management who failed to undertaken a reasoned investigation. The Court of Appeal stated:

   Witnesses for Wal-Mart testified that its management team did investigate Boucher’s complaints.  They held three meetings at the Windsor store with several employees.  They completed their investigation in early November and met with Boucher on November 14, 2009 to discuss their findings.

[31]      Wal-Mart’s management team told Boucher that they had investigated her complaints and found them to be “unsubstantiated”.  They also told her that she would be held accountable for making these unsubstantiated complaints, but they had not yet decided what discipline she would face.  They concluded that Boucher was trying to undermine Pinnock’s authority.  Boucher left the meeting in tears.

[32]      Pinnock, on the other hand, was not disciplined for his conduct or even cautioned about it.  He was spoken to only about his and his team’s use of inappropriate language.

[33]      In reaching their findings, Wal-Mart’s management team appeared to ignore the numerous incidents in which Pinnock berated Boucher in front of co-workers.  And little evidence was led at trial that Wal-Mart’s investigators sought information from the other assistant managers who had witnessed Pinnock’s abusive conduct.

The plaintiff was awarded $200,000 in aggravated damages, $100,000 for damages for the intentional infliction of mental distress against her manager, for which the employer was responsible, $100,000 in punitive damages against the company and $10,000 in punitive damages against the manager. The employment contract limited her severance claim to 20 weeks pay.