What is the test for an employer to conclude that an employee has abandoned their employment?

It is an implied term of every contract of employment that an employee must attend work when scheduled. If an employee fails to comply with that term an employer may conclude that he or she has abandoned (or repudiated) the contract of employment, which then entitles the employer to treat the contract as being at an end. Abandonment then is akin to–but not equal to–quitting. Nor is it the same as termination by the employer. The test is objective, and depends upon the facts that exist as of the date the employer decides that the employee has abandoned work: “[T]he test for determining whether an employee had abandoned his or her employment ... [is] whether, viewing the circumstances objectively, ... a reasonable person [would] have understood from the employee’s words and actions, that he or she had abandoned the contract:” Pereira v. The Business Depot Ltd 2011 BCCA 361 at para. 47.