Resources: Employment

Employer Obligations on Election Day

A federal election will be held on Monday, October 21, 2019.

As a service to our clients and other interested parties, we are publishing this bulletin on the obligations owed by employers to their employees on election day.

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How Does Age Impact Reasonable Notice Period Assessment?

With the demise of mandatory retirement many people are now working past age 65.  What impact does age have on the assessment of the reasonable notice period?  A recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal confirmed that “exceptional circumstances” must exist before more than 24 months is awarded, and that neither age nor a planned retirement date constitute exceptional circumstances.

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Ontario Court of Appeal Confirms Nude Selfies Are Not Offensive

In Zigomanis v. 2156775 Ontario Inc. (D’Angelo Brands), 2018 ONCA 116, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a lower court decision that a professional hockey player’s nude selfies did not offend public morals and decency and there was thus no basis to terminate a promotional contract.

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Family Feud: Survey Says BC Test for Family Status Discrimination is Good Law

In a decision issued August 8, 2019, Brian Suen v. Envirocon Environmental Services, ULC et al., 2019 CanLII 73206 (SCC), the Court dismissed the leave application of a human rights complainant who alleged he was subjected to prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of family status (familial obligations), and implicitly approved of the test for family status discrimination developed by the BC Court of Appeal in 2004 and recently reaffirmed in Envirocon Environmental Services, ULC v. Suen, 2019 BCCA 46.

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Six Months for Six Months: Is One Month’s Notice per One Month of Employment Reasonable?

The past few years have seen a wave of Canadian court awards involving significant reasonable notice periods for short service employees, and the recent B.C. case of Greenlees v. Starline Windows Ltd, 2018 BCSC 1457 is a prime example.

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Employee’s Desire to Return to Work After Extended Medical Leave Not Enough to Trigger Duty to Accommodate

In Katz et al. v. Clarke, 2019 ONSC 2188, the plaintiff had been hired by the defendant in 2000 as a front store manager.  He had gone on sick leave due to a disability in July 2008 and had not returned to work after that.  He had been disabled by two falls which had occurred outside the workplace and injured his knee and leg.  As a result of the injuries, the plaintiff required a crutch and brace on a permanent basis.  He received both short-term disability (“STD”) and long-term disability (“LTD”) benefits.

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Getting Back Together with an Ex: Constructive Dismissal and Offers of Re-Employment

In the recently released Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision, Gent v. Strone Inc., 2019 ONSC 155, the Court reaffirmed that an employee’s duty to mitigate may well include accepting an offer of re-employment with his or her former employer.

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Terminating Post-Train Wreck?  Let’s Talk Training — Failure to Train Someone Other than Plaintiff Can Erode Just Cause for Dismissal

Richard Tymko was discharged from employment when the train on which he was working as a switchman derailed in the internal rail yard of a pulp mill in northern British Columbia.  His employer, 4-D Warner Enterprises, terminated his employment because it alleged he failed to tell his co-worker, the trackmobile operator, to apply the train’s brakes and that caused the derailment.

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Unconscionability in the Gig Economy:  Ontario Court of Appeal Tackles Uber’s Mandatory Arbitration Clause

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently issued a decision in Heller v. Uber Technologies Inc., 2019 ONCA 1 and found that the mandatory arbitration clause in Uber’s form of services agreement was unconscionable.

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Statutory Changes to Collective Bargaining Framework in British Columbia

The laws that govern both unionized and non-unionized workplaces in British Columbia are changing. Bill 8, the Employment Standards Amendments Act, 2019, received its first reading in the B.C. Legislature on April 29, 2019. On the following day, Bill 30, the Labour Relations Code Amendment Act, also was tabled for its first reading.

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