Resources
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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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Ontario Court of Appeal Confirms Nude Selfies Are Not Offensive
August 2019
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
August 2019
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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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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Six Months for Six Months: Is One Month’s Notice per One Month of Employment Reasonable?
August 2019
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
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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Getting Back Together with an Ex: Constructive Dismissal and Offers of Re-Employment
July 2019
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
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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Unconscionability in the Gig Economy: Ontario Court of Appeal Tackles Uber’s Mandatory Arbitration Clause
June 2019
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
June 2019
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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