Supreme Court: She was right - Regina Leader Post, Saskatchewan
Merk was fired from her job as manager and bookkeeper for the Iron Workers Union, Local 771, on Nov. 5, 2001 after raising concerns that two supervisors were being paid more than once for the same expenses. Merk mounted the first legal test of Saskatchewan's whistleblower law, under the Labour Standards Act, which makes it an offence to fire an employee for reporting wrongdoing.
In its first decision on a whistleblowing law, the country's top court ruled 6-1 in her favor. It convicted the union and sent the case back to provincial court for sentencing and to consider Merk's claim for compensation.