Resources: Employment

Yet Another Turn in the Saga of “Family Status” Discrimination

Nothing worries clients more than to be told that the subject matter for which they require advice is “interesting”. Interesting is often a synonym for expensive. If that is the case, the issue of child and elder care in the context of human rights is likely to generate more expense in the coming year and beyond. The risks are made more common with an aging population and a workforce that requires busy people to juggle family commitments with work.

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Breach of Duty of Good Faith results in Award of Punitive Damages and Sends Message to Employers

A recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court saw the court award $50,000 in punitive damages to a plaintiff in a wrongful dismissal action. The court concluded that the defendant employer breached its duty of good faith to its former employee by asserting cause for dismissal when there was no reasonable basis for such an assertion and by engaging in behaviour calculated to financially impact the plaintiff.

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Getting with the Times – The “Modern” Approach to Determining if an Employment Relationship Exists

The modern workplace includes all sorts of working arrangements, and it is not always clear whether a person is an employee, an independent contractor, or somewhere in between. In TCF Ventures Corp. v. The Cambie Malone’s Corporation, the B.C. Supreme Court applied some “modern” thinking to the parties’ relationship and determined that an employment relationship existed despite the non-exclusive, non-traditional working arrangement in place.

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A Bad Termination Meeting Could Lead to an Unenforceable Release

Employers often rely on signed releases after termination to ensure that employees cannot later sue them for wrongful dismissal. It has always been the law that in certain limited circumstances a release may not be an effective defence (for example, due to unconscionability, lack of consideration, or duress) but those situations are rare.

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Bartender Claims his Termination for Smoking Marijuana at Work was Discriminatory

Darin Burton alleged that his employer, Tugboat Annie’s Pub (the “Employer”), discriminated against him on the ground of physical disability when he was discharged for smoking marijuana at the workplace. Burton claimed that the Employer had been aware since the outset of his employment that he used medical marijuana to deal with chronic pain from degenerative disk disease.

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Do Employees Have an Expectation of Privacy in Their Text Messages?

Information and evidence obtained from social media or electronic communications is playing an increasingly important role in the workplace, but employers must be conscious of employee privacy rights.  As a result, the Ontario Court of Appeal’s recent decision regarding whether there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in sent text messages is of particular interest to employers.

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Just How Much Might Those Hurt Feelings Be Worth In British Columbia? BC Court of Appeal Weighs In

The likelihood of parties in British Columbia coming to a mutually agreeable resolution of human rights disputes may have just become more unlikely as a result of the BC Court of Appeal’s recent decision in University of British Columbia v. Kelly, 2016 BCCA 271.

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Employer Pays For Shoddy Workplace Investigation

The B.C. Supreme Court’s decision in Lau v. Royal Bank of Canada, 2015 BCSC 1639 provides a reminder of the crucial importance of conducting a fair, objective and thorough workplace investigation, especially where dishonesty or fraud is alleged.

An investigative stitch in time could well have saved the employer in this case nine months’ worth of damages for failure to provide termination notice, $30,000 in aggravated damages and costs.

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Is it Discriminatory to Exclude Childless Employees From a Child-Focused Benefit Payment?

In Nelson v. Bodwell High School (No. 2), 2016 BCHRT 75 a single, male teacher with no children claimed that he was discriminated against on the basis of his family status because he was not eligible for his employer’s Child Benefit Scheme (“CBS”).  The CBS provided an annual payment of $1,200 per dependent child to each full time employee with at least one year of continuing service.  Mr. Nelson did not have any children so he did not qualify for any payment under the CBS.

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Undocumented Obligations: The Creation of an Oral Fixed Term Employment Contract

While it is fairly common for terms of an employment contract to be partially written and partially oral, the oral terms tend to be more nebulous. In James v. The Hollypark Organization Inc., 2016 BCSC 495, the dispute centered on the existence of an oral term.

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