You have been charged, not convicted, so your employer should not take action against you.
If you are convicted, however, the questions and answers become more complex.
Some convictions would likely lead to automatic dismissal, some to no action and many somewhere in between.
For example, if you hold two jobs and were convicted of stealing from one employer, chances are your other boss is going to look at firing you if you cannot be trusted in the workplace. If you do not have access to money or property that can be stolen, you may be able to argue that you should not be fired from this other job.
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On the other hand, if you were convicted of an offence that has nothing to do with your employment, you can argueit should not have any effect on your employment.
It may be that you became intoxicated at the Riders-Stampeders football game in Calgary and got into a scuffle with police, and were charged and convicted of causing a disturbance.
Unless your job has some public relations aspect, it is tough to see why you should be fired for this.
I represented a welder at an implement manufacturer who found himself in just this situation, and we successfully negotiated the retention of his job. There should be some kind of link between the job and the conviction before a job action is taken against you.
Many cases fall in the middle, where they could lead to job action or perhaps not. Even where convictions affect your employment, in many cases termination is not automatic.
You might receive a conviction for drinking and driving. If your criminal offence stems from a medical condition or disability (in this case, addiction to alcohol) your employer may have a legal duty to “accommodate” you.
In other words, your employer may be required by law to work with you to see if you can conquer the problem. The employer may haveto keep you employed and even reassigned to other duties while you obtain counseling or addiction assistance.
Of interest is a growing trend to legislate consequences to certain crimes that would not ordinarily accrue. An example is domestic violence. At one time, this was a crime that did not affect one’s employment status and wouldn’t get a person fired.
Ontario has introduced Bill 168, which is an amendment to the province’s occupational health and safety law. It has safeguards against workplace violence, which seem to make sense. If you’re at work, you shouldn’t have to worry that another employee is going to poke you in the nose.
However, Bill 168 goes further and says if employers “become aware or ought reasonably to be aware that domestic violence that would likely expose a worker to physical injury may occur in the workplace, the employer shall take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of the worker.”
This proposed law doesn’t create a specific duty on employers to report domestic violence, but employers might want to build domestic violence into their internal health and safety policies if a worker could face injury from what is happening at home, even if it arises from inattention at work due to abuse at home.
More interesting is the proposed internal rule. If an employer knows about an employee’s violent history, there’s a duty to warn the other employees. This creates a conflict between ensuring your employees are safe and the privacy rights of employees with a history of violence.
So the answer to your question depends on whether you’re convicted and the type of crime.
Don’t assume that your termination is a done deal; seek legal advice.
