CUB 58966

KRINDLE, Hon.

The employer appeals a decision of the board of referees determining that the claimant had just cause to voluntarily terminate his employment. The employer did not appear before the board of referees although duly notified of the hearing. In its notice of appeal, the employer attached a great deal of evidence that was not before the board of referees, all of which would not have been readily available to the employer at the time of the hearing of the board. I declined to admit that as new evidence and it forms no part of my reasoning.

The claimant attested before the board to the circumstances that prevailed at his working environment and how the stress of his situation was taking him to the point of a nervous breakdown. He called certain supporting evidence. The board of referees acknowledged that there was no medical evidence from the time of the claimant's working although some medical evidence after the fact was submitted. The board also found as a fact that the claimant suffered harassment on a daily basis and did not receive the training and promotion originally promised by the employer.

The conclusions of fact were one's that were reasonably open to the board on the evidence before it. It is true that the evidence on which the board relied came primarily from the claimant himself. The evidence that the claimant called in support was not evidence of persons who saw the conduct of the employer so much as it was evidence of persons who saw the effects on the claimant of his continuing employment. But there is no law which says that the claimant's testimony must be supported by contemporaneous medical or eye-witness testimony, or for that matter, by any testimony. What is required at the end of the day is that the board be satisfied on a balance of probabilities, on the totality of the evidence, that the claimant had just cause to voluntarily terminate his employment. It is clear that the board here was so satisfied.

The board has made no error in law or jurisdiction. I cannot say any of the board's fact findings were perverse or capricious. They certainly were made having regard to the whole of the evidence that was before the board. If the employer does not agree with those fact findings, the place for the employer to put forward its evidence is before the board and not on appeal. The appeal is dismissed.

Ruth Krindle

UMPIRE

OTTAWA, Ontario
October 10, 2003