Digest of Benefit Entitlement Principles Chapter 7 A.1

A.1 Interpretation of word "misconduct"

Misconduct refers in general to actions that are incompatible with the carrying out of the duties for which the employee was hired. These are actions that result in the person, who committed these infractions and worked for the employer at issue, no longer meeting the expressed or implicit conditions of employment or work.

It is not necessary that the misconduct occur during work, or at the workplace or even while carrying out duties for the employer. An offence committed elsewhere than at work could amount to misconduct if the infraction was such that the conditions of employment, whether they are explicitly or implicitly ethical or physical conditions, could no longer be met and it led to the dismissal.

While this is not an absolute principle, it can also be said that, in order to constitute misconduct, the actions or omissions complained of must have been voluntary or willful or of such a careless or negligent nature that it appears to have been committed deliberately.

Misconduct involves the claimant's own behaviour, or responsibilities for which he or she was personally accountable. Association with a group of individuals is not incriminating in itself, but group misconduct does not relieve the claimant the responsibility for his or her own actions.

Reference: see 7.1.0, "A mixed question of law and fact".

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