A few weeks ago I blogged about auto workers being “laid off” before their first shift, and the hypothetical remedies available to them. (Click here to read the blog.) Among other things, I suggested that the workers may be able to claim damages if they were lured from their old job.
Today the local paper Toronto Metro published an article on how the employers may be found liable for luring new recruits from their old employers. (Click here to read the article.)
The author indicates that where an employee has been induced or recruited away from a secure job, a court may attribute the prior tenure to the recruiting employer. In other words, the new boss may be liable for damages if the new recruit doesn’t work out, and the new recruit was effectively “lured” (that is, beyond the normal degree of persuasion) into the new job.
The author at the same time cautions that not every employee recruited away from another job is entitled to this claim. It must be shown that the employee was “lured,” or induced by the new employer to leave the old job.
I think this is fair. In other areas of law, such as civil litigation, anyone inducing another to commit a civil wrong (e.g. a tort) will be held liable for contributory damages, unless it can be shown that the wrongdoer would have committed the tort regardless of the inducement. In the context of criminal law, a defendant who induced another to commit a crime would generally also be prosecuted to a certain degree.
I think this is a positive development in the area of employment law.
