A former insurance salesman has won almost $250,000 in back pay and damages from his former employer, Hub International Ltd., in a constructive dismissal suit.

An Ontario court has awarded $249,239.79, including $10,900 in punitive damages to Gino Strangis, and against Hub.

Strangis claimed he was constructively dismissed from the firm and sought $200,000 in general damages, special damages of $20,000.00, and aggravated and punitive damages of $100,000, the decision notes.

The court agreed that he was constructively dismissed when the firm tried to unilaterally change the terms of his employment. The court also found the case warranted punitive damages.

“When the defendants made a decision to introduce what appears to be a system in which all remuneration would be based on commissions, they… made several efforts to have the plaintiff sign a written agreement. The plaintiff resisted. After having made a calculation of commissions earned by the plaintiff, the defendants withheld payment of those commissions on the basis that the plaintiff was not entitled to those commissions until the plaintiff signed the agreement proffered,” the court explained in its decision.

“There is no dispute about this fact. There were several incidents of this ‘withholding’. In fact, there was substantial credible evidence that at least on one occasion the plaintiff was invited to a meeting at which he was shown an envelope purporting to contain a cheque made payable to him for commissions owing to him, and asked to exchange the cheque for his signature on the agreement,” it added. “The defendants’ attempt to explain this gross misconduct by submitting that accounting requirements mandated the execution of the agreement before the cheque could be disbursed was disingenuous and, in my view, offered, only when the offensive, and indeed, the illegal, nature of that practice was exposed for what it was.”

As a result, the court decided to levy punitive damages of $10,900, along with the plaintiff’s unpaid commissions, vacation pay, car allowance, severance and the value of his shares in the firm.