The Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta returned its decision, ruling in favour of the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) in the Mimi Williams v. TWU case on Tuesday, May 10, 2011.

The two issues were:

1)    Did the TWU wrongfully dismiss the plaintiff after she was terminated by Telus?

2)    If it did, is the plaintiff entitled to salary and benefits to the end of her elected term and in what amounts?  If wrongfully dismissed, is the plaintiff entitled to aggravated and punitive damages?

Mimi Williams, a former Telus employee and TWU Business Agent (BA), lost her position as a BA in 2007 when her job was terminated from Telus for incidents that occurred during the 2005 labour dispute between the Union and the Company.  The 2007 Convention upheld the acting President’s (Peter Massy) decision following her appeal to the Convention to overturn his interpretation of the TWU Constitution when he determined she could not hold her BA position.  Mimi Williams sued the TWU for wrongful dismissal and sought to be paid to the end of her term, as well as aggravated and punitive damages.

The May 10 decision determined that Mimi Williams was not wrongfully dismissed and that the TWU did not act in bad faith as she had alleged.

To read the Memorandum of Decision in full, please refer to the following link:  http://www.twu-stt.ca/sites/default/files/20110511.pdf