What is the duty of an employee dismissed from his or her employment without cause and without proper notice to mitigate their damages?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Birch v. Grinnell Fire Protection, 1998 CanLII 3900 (BC SC):

It is settled law that an employee dismissed from his or her employment without cause and without proper notice must, as in other cases involving a breach of contract, take reasonable steps to mitigate his or her damages. As Laskin C.J.C. said in Red Deer College v. Michaels, 1975 CanLII 15 (SCC), [1976] 2 S.C.R. 324 at 330: The primary rule in breach of contract cases, that a wronged plaintiff is entitled to be put in as good a position as he would have been in if there had been proper performance by the defendant, is subject to the qualification that the defendant cannot be called upon to pay for avoidable losses which would result in an increase in the quantum of damages payable to the plaintiff. The reference in the case law to a "duty" to mitigate should be understood in that sense. In short, a wronged plaintiff is entitled to recover damages for the losses he has suffered but the extent of those losses may depend on whether he has taken reasonable steps to avoid their unreasonable accumulation.

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