Labor & Employment Law

Update on Defamation in Employment Law Cases

By Michael Fitzgibbon

I had posted some time ago about Defamation in Employment Cases and Qualified Privilege.  I saw this morning that Greg Gowe has a post discussing the issue (Supervisor's defamatory appraisal of dismissed employee protected by qualified privilege) and the Dawydiuk case.

Defamation in employment law cases is an interesting issue that comes up in a variety of context with the effect of often freezing HR and operations people into "erring on the side of caution" and taking a highly conservative approach to information giving/sharing about or with employees within and outside the organization.  In some cases, as in Dawydiuk a qualified privilege might apply (though, as in that case, it may not apply in every information sharing situation).

I've written about this here at Defamation Claims and Employment.

Defamation claims can arise in a number of situations including when giving a reference (discussed many, many years ago at Employee References - Should you Give Them?), in performance reviews and in many other contexts arising out of the employment relationship. The good news is that, in appropriate cases, a defence, such as qualified privilege, which has been advanced in a number of employment cases, might be available.  

Full post as published by Thoughts from a Management Lawyer on August 18, 2010 (boomark / email).