The Business Ethics Blog

The post-Stanley Cup riots in Vancouver last week have generated a minor landslide of commentary. Much of it has focused on just who the malefactors were. In an age of social media, this has amounted to more than mere speculation: the identities of quite a few of the trouble-makers have come to light. Those who participated in the riots have thus brought very public shame upon themselves and their city. But what about the shame brought upon their employers?

Over at the “Double Hearsay” law blog, the question is asked from a legal point of view: Can employers fire Vancouver rioters? The short version of the legal analysis there is this. Any employer can fire an employee “without cause” as long as they give proper notice. In order to fire without giving a couple weeks’ notice, an employer has to have “cause:”

Generally speaking, an employee can be fired for his private conduct if that conduct is “wholly incompatible” with the proper discharge of his employment duties, or if it would tend to prejudice the employer….

The latter possibility is the relevant one here. If an employee participates in a riot and is widely known a) to have participated in shameful behaviour and b) to be your employee, then the employee has effectively done something “prejudicial” (i.e., likely to negatively effect your business).

OK, so that’s the legal side. Labour law draws a reasonably clear line around what you as an employer can do, and what the court will support your having done. But that still leaves open the question, should you even attempt to fire an employee who you know to have participated in a riot, say like the recent one in Vancouver or last year’s at the G20 in Toronto?

Here are a few quick considerations:

1) The legal issue of an employee behaving in a way that is “prejudicial” to the employer is also of course a very reasonable ethical consideration. A riot like the one in Vancouver is accompanied by significant public outrage, and guilt by association is a very real problem. In many industries, a business lives or dies by its reputation. As Warren Buffett has said, “Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding. Lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless.”

2) By participating — even somewhat passively, let’s say — in a riot, an employee reveals quite a lot about his own character and judgment. Do you really want someone with that little judgment working for you? Your company, no matter how laid back its corporate culture, has some sort of authority structure. It’s fair to ask just how suitable an employee is to work within any authority structure when they’ve publicly egged on another human being in burning cop cars or assaulting firefighters.

3) Even from an ethical point of view, the legal notion of “due process” is relevant. So if you’re considering firing someone for taking part in a riot, you can’t in all fairness do so based on mere hearsay, or without giving him a chance to defend himself. The right process is at least as important as the right outcome.

4) Finally, it is worth considering whether there are alternatives to firing. Maybe being laid off for a few weeks is sufficient. Or perhaps the employee can demonstrate his contrition by doing volunteer work. But it should be remembered that the solution has to fit the reason for firing in the first place. If your worry is that participation in a riot demonstrates a fundamental lack of judgment, then volunteer work isn’t going to erase that worry.

As a lawyer friend of mine put it, “rioting seems to strike at the core of social order.” And social order is at the core of business. It’s not unreasonable to think that participation in a riot is a disqualification for employment — but such a conclusion still has to be implemented prudently and fairly.

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Thanks to Dan Michaluk for tweeting this story and bringing it to my attention.