Final arguments heard in Chris Cousins' lawsuit against QEC

It's now a waiting game for Chris Cousins and the Qulliq Energy Corporation, as both sides made their final arguments to Justice Paul Bychok on Friday.

Cousins is suing his former employer for constructive dismissal, defined as a situation where the employer has not directly fired the employee. Cousins said he had no choice but to leave the corporation in March 2011 after being suspended and demoted, but the QEC argued that Cousins quit.

This is the third constructive dismissal lawsuit by a former QEC employee against the corporation. Sarah Kucera lost her case in 2014 but Amy Hynes won her lawsuit in 2013. 

Cousins' suspension cost him $10,000 argues his lawyer

Phil Hunt, Cousins' lawyer, outlined his client's case for constructive dismissal in two arguments.

First, Cousins was handed a 30-day, unpaid suspension and a demotion. Based on past cases, he said that amounts to a constructive dismissal. Second, the four disciplinary actions taken by the QEC separately or together, were a disproportionate response to Cousins' actions.

Hunt argued the QEC never warned Cousins about a pending suspension or demotion before writing a letter to tell him he would be moving from a management to union position. Hunt said there was no timeline for how long the demotion would last but QEC pointed out that the letter stated Cousins' situation would be reviewed each month.

By changing from a supervisory to a non-supervisory role, Hunt said Cousins stood to lose about $15,000 per year and  said he lost about $10,000 in wages during his 30-day suspension.

Hunt said the corporation never followed its own policies. The QEC's progressive discipline policy states that employees can be suspended for up to 10 days, but the corporation applied a suspension of three times that in disciplining Cousins. The policy does not outline using demotion to discipline employees.

QEC tried to help Cousins: lawyer for corporation

The lawyer for the QEC said it had grounds to terminate Cousins under its progressive discipline policy but was instead trying to help Cousins. 

Richard Beamish said Cousins' suspension, demotion and anger management training was to help him move past his obsession with Article 23, the Inuit employment section of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, and to refocus on his work.

Beamish said termination was not on the table even after Cousins' "long history of repeated, egregious conduct."

He said Cousins was trying to discredit the corporation "with the goal to destroy the reputation" of then president Peter Mackey and director of human resources Catherine Cronin by calling them racist and discriminatory.

Justice Paul Bychok said he hopes to have a written decision on the lawsuit by the end of the year.