The employee worked for the City of Vancouver for a long time. He experienced issues with mental illness which the City appropriately accommodated when necessary. In 2012, the employee had a perfect attendance record and was eligible for an award. All employees with perfect attendance records for the year were allowed to choose from a selection of clothing, gift cards, or other merchandise. This employee chose a jacket and it was ordered and placed in the superintendent's office with the other awards to await distribution to the recipients. The employee saw his jacket in the superintendent's office, labelled with his name, and took it. He did not tell anyone he had taken it even though he was asked twice about the jacket during a City investigation of the theft.
Ultimately, the employee was caught on a security video camera with the jacket and admitted to taking the jacket. The employee said that he did not think there was anything wrong as it was ultimately his jacket. He said he was suffering from mental illness, as he had in the past, and relied on that as a reason for taking the jacket ahead of the award ceremony and not telling the City he had done so.
The City suspended the employee and ultimately terminated his employment for violating its trust through dishonesty and lack of integrity. The Courts upheld that termination as there was not enough medical evidence to support the argument that the employee's dishonesty was caused by his mental disability. The Court found that he was terminated because he lied to the City, not because of his mental health, and there was not enough medical evidence to support the argument that his dishonesty was caused by his disability.
Though the consequence appears to exceed the offense, this case confirms that a mental disability is not always an excuse for bad behaviour!
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