Worker Fired after Driving Company Truck Without Permission & While Drunk

A worker drove a company vehicle without permission and while drunk on the way back to the workplace from a client visit. He was responsible for a serious accident that totalled the truck and left him with serious injuries. The company fired him for cause. The worker had signed the employee handbook, which barred the consumption of alcohol off premises while conducting business. The court noted that normally, a single and isolated incident won’t be sufficient cause to dismiss a long-time employee. But there are exceptions. Here, the worker, who’d been an employee for 23 years, had engaged in serious and criminal misconduct in the course of his employment. Thus, the company was entitled to fire him for this incident [Dziecielski v. Lighting Dimensions Inc., [2012] O.J. No. 1305, March 22, 2012].