Resources: Health + Safety
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Saucy Tweet Results in For Cause Termination of Employee
February 2020
Fastenal Canada terminated B.C. employee Hussien Mehaidi for expressing his outrage on Twitter for the company’s Christmas gift of Gets Sauced BBQ sauce and a company
branded wooden scraper. Mehaidi tweeted from an anonymous account with zero followers a tweet which read: “what kind of multi-billion dollar company gifts its Canadian employees barbecue sauce as a holiday gift? Yet the USA employees stuff their face with an actual holiday gift box!”Read More +
Saucy Tweet Results in For Cause Termination of Employee -
Coronavirus: Information Bulletin for Employers
January 2020
As of today’s date, January 28, 2020, more than 100 people have died from the Wuhan coronavirus – a novel (new) coronavirus – and more than 4,500 others have been infected. A warning has been issued to travellers to avoid all non-essential travel to China and cases of infection have been reported in countries other than China, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.
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Ontario Court of Appeal Refuses to Recognize Freestanding Tort of Harassment
January 2020
In Merrifield v. Canada (Attorney General), 2019 ONCA 205, the plaintiff was a longstanding member of the RCMP who alleged that his supervisors had discriminated against him for years. The strained relationship began when the plaintiff had run for public office. He was considered to be in a potential conflict of interest following his investigation of threats against a political rival.
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Ontario Court of Appeal Refuses to Recognize Freestanding Tort of Harassment -
Jail Sentences for Worker Fatalities: Will They or Won’t They?
October 2019
Most employers are aware that the health and safety of their workers is one of the most important considerations on a worksite. Across Canada, warnings have been issued to employers and their directors that accountability for workplace accidents and especially fatalities is increasing. However, in the recent decision of Ontario (Labour) v. New Mex Canada Inc., 2019 ONCA 30, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a lower court‘s decision to overturn two jail sentences for directors following a workplace fatality.
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Jail Sentences for Worker Fatalities: Will They or Won’t They? -
A Most Canadian Caper: The Tale of the Vaping Zamboni Driver
August 2019
The legalization of cannabis has and will continue to affect a great number of things in our country — from policing to residential leasing to the air quality. Notwithstanding this significant shift in public policy, the legalization of cannabis has not impaired the rights of employers in this country to insist that employees report for work unimpaired by the use of drugs. The legalization of cannabis has also brought about more stringent restrictions on driving after using cannabis. This would presumably also apply to operating a Zamboni.
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A Most Canadian Caper: The Tale of the Vaping Zamboni Driver -
Sober Second Thought Key to Proving Reasonable Cause for a Drug Test
August 2019
Drug and alcohol testing has become both more common, and more accepted, in safety sensitive workplaces. When an employee’s appearance, behaviour, speech, motor skills, or body odour suggest recent drug or alcohol use, an employer will have reasonable cause to require a drug and/or alcohol test to determine whether it is safe for the employee to be at work. When an employee is involved in an accident or a near miss, post-incident drug and alcohol testing is appropriate to rule out impairment as a cause of the safety incident.
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Employee’s Desire to Return to Work After Extended Medical Leave Not Enough to Trigger Duty to Accommodate
July 2019
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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Employee’s Desire to Return to Work After Extended Medical Leave Not Enough to Trigger Duty to Accommodate -
Terminating Post-Train Wreck? Let’s Talk Training — Failure to Train Someone Other than Plaintiff Can Erode Just Cause for Dismissal
July 2019
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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Terminating Post-Train Wreck? Let’s Talk Training — Failure to Train Someone Other than Plaintiff Can Erode Just Cause for Dismissal -
Advancing Unfounded Just Cause Defence Leads To Large Damages Award
May 2019
The B.C. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Bailey v. Service Corporation (Canada) ULC, 2018 BCSC 235 highlights the perils of advancing unfounded just cause allegations and a court’s willingness to sanction such conduct with substantial aggravated and punitive damages awards.
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Combative Conduct in the Workplace and the Duty to Inquire
April 2019
Tomasz Rutkowski, a unionized painter in the employer’s engineering department, filed a human rights complaint against his employer concerning its treatment of him in dealing with his mental disability. In Rutkowski v. Westin Bayshore Hotel and another, 2018 BCHRT 235, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) dismissed the complaint.
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Combative Conduct in the Workplace and the Duty to Inquire