View cases - Stewart McKelvey

conscience. Nevertheless, he expected Mr. Jones to do what Mr. Hardy asked, and he felt thatMr. Jones had done it before. He agreed that, in order for Mr. Jones to keep his job, he had toobey Mr. Hardy and put out the poinsettias. At the time of the meeting, Mr. Eisler did not knowthat Mr. Hardy had already put the poinsettias out.[36] Mr. Hardy testified that, when Mr. Jones met with Mr. Eisler, Mr. Eisler asked Mr. Jonesto do anything that wouldn’t cause undue hardship and to follow Mr. Hardy’s direction. Mr.Jones said that his Christian conscience wouldn’t allow him to put out decorations. Mr. Hardytestified that Mr. Jones was not fired; he got up and left. He said that Mr. Eisler did not tell Mr.Jones to clean out his locker and leave.[37] The Respondents submitted that Mr. Jones’ history with C.H.E. demonstrates escalatingjob dissatisfaction and an increasing pattern of insubordination, leading to his refusal to put outthe poinsettias and, ultimately, his resignation. In my opinion, the evidence does not support thatcontention. There is no evidence of any job dissatisfaction prior to April 1997, at which timeMr. Jones and other merchandisers accepted Mr. Eisler’s offer to come up with a schedule theycould agree on. Mr. Jones’ letter of April 9, 1997, closes with, “Thanks for considering theseviews and suggestions, as you have done in the past.” Mr. Eisler implemented their suggestions.There is no evidence of any further issues until September 1998, when Mr. Eisler proposedchanging Mr. Jones’ position. Clearly, Mr. Jones was very unhappy with the proposed change.He threatened to sue for wrongful dismissal. After some discussion, he agreed to accept adifferent position than the one proposed. He started it on October 1. There is no evidence thatMr. Jones was dissatisfied with his job between then and the events in November. In hisconversation with Mr. Jones on November 19, Mr. Hardy said he thought “the customer serviceposition was going just fine.” The only evidence of insubordination, other than in November,was Mr. Hardy’s evidence that Mr. Jones sometimes asked him to assign work to youngeremployees. Mr. Jones was not asked about this evidence, and I give it little weight.[38] I accept that Mr. Eisler did not tell Mr. Jones that he was fired. However, on Mr. Eisler’sown evidence, in order to keep his job, Mr. Jones would have to obey Mr. Hardy and put outdecorations. Mr. Eisler gave Mr. Jones an ultimatum, the effect of which was to require him tochoose between his job and his faith. Although Mr. Eisler testified that he was ready to discuss it10