A long-time Winnipeg 7-Eleven clerk who was fired after she was caught violating company policy on the sale of tobacco to minors was terminated without just cause, a judge has ruled.

The convenience store giant is on the hook to pay Beverly Salkeld about $40,000 in severance after Court of Queen's Bench Justice Lori Spivak ruled the company couldn't prove Salkeld's breaches of the internal tobacco-sale rules were intentional.

'I have difficulty accepting that the circumstances here were significantly serious to amount to a loss of trust and just cause.'— Court of Queen's Bench Justice Lori Spivak

Salkeld, 52, was fired from her job as a counter clerk at a 7-Eleven store in the city's River Heights area in December 2008. She launched a wrongful-dismissal suit three months later that has been winding its way through the courts ever since.

Salkeld started working with 7-Eleven in 1981 and had been an exemplary employee, according to Spivak's written decision in the case.

The company said Salkeld was terminated after she failed to ask two people hired by 7-Eleven to pose as customers — known as mystery shoppers — for identification to prove they were 18, the legal age to purchase tobacco in Manitoba.

The company's policy — known as the "ID Zone" policy — requires employees to request identification from any tobacco-purchasing customer who appears to be under 30.

Caught by mystery shoppers

Spivak's decision said that in May 2008, Salkeld was on shift at a 7-Eleven on Academy Road when a male customer entered and purchased cigarettes.

The man was 24 at the time, and Salkeld didn't ask for his ID.

A few days later, the company sent her a warning letter informing her of the policy breach and put her on notice that a further violation would result in her being fired. She willingly signed a letter acknowledging that warning, Spivak wrote.

However, Salkeld disputed that the man looked under 30 after she and her boss had reviewed the videotape of the incident, Spivak wrote. She didn't press the issue because she was afraid she'd lose her job.

Spivak said Salkeld was briefly put on paid leave after being told she failed a second test involving a 21-year-old, female mystery shopper in November 2008.

About two weeks later, she was fired.

'Credible and sincere'

Despite her efforts to find other work, Salkeld didn't get another job until January, and it was only a part-time position, with a lower salary than her 7-Eleven job, the judge wrote.

Spivak said that while 7-Eleven has good reasons to ensure tobacco isn't sold to minors as the fines for doing so are steep, Salkeld's breach of the policy was unintentional and her belief that the first company-hired shopper was over 30 was "credible and sincere."

"I am, therefore, not of the view that Ms. Salkeld knew or should have known that [the mystery shopper] appeared under 30 and that she violated the ID Zone policy," Spivak stated.

"I have difficulty accepting that the circumstances here were significantly serious to amount to a loss of trust and just cause when balanced against Ms. Salkeld's lengthy … [adherence] to the ID Zone policy, the absence of an intentional refusal to follow the rules or a pattern of careless disregard and her many years of good service and devotion."

Salkeld will be paid about $40,000 in severance minus any earnings from her new job during the 14-month period starting when she was let go.