Resources
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Consider This: A Fresh Look at the Legal Need for Consideration
September 2018
The B.C. Court of Appeal may recently have offered an answer to a question that has always vexed employers: why must employers provide their employees with something in exchange for a minor contract modification? The short answer is that they may no longer have to.
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Post-Incident Drug Testing Policies in the Age of Cannabis
September 2018
What do low speed collisions, marijuana, and post-incident drug testing have in common? Those are the facts that were before the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in Canadian Energy Workers’ Association v ATCO Electric Ltd, 2018 ABQB 258.
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Back To School — Does Retraining Count As Reasonable Mitigation Of Damages?
August 2018
In Benjamin v. Cascades Canada ULC, 2017 ONSC 2583, the plaintiff had worked as an unskilled labourer with the defendant company for 28 years. The company had eliminated all of its production functions at one of its plant locations, resulting in the dismissal of 41 employees, including the plaintiff.
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The Grievor Was Reinstated, Or Was He?
July 2018
In the case of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 1620 v. Lower Churchill Transmission Construction Employers’ Assn. Inc. (Uprichard Grievance), [2017] N.L.L.A.A. No. 4, the arbitrator was faced with a reconsideration of his earlier decision to uphold the discharge of an employee for his failure to disclose medical marijuana use.
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On “Ambushes” and the Rules of Engagement for Statutorily Protected Leaves of Absence
July 2018
A late 2017 arbitration decision out of British Columbia — Kone Inc. v. International Union of Elevator Constructors, Local 82 (Kelpin Grievance), [2017] B.C.C.A.A.A. No. 128 (McEwen) — confirmed that employees cannot “ambush” employers with an after-the-fact claim that going AWOL was actually a legislatively protected leave. In this case, the leave claimed was B.C. “family responsibility leave”.
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“Investigation is the New Arbitration”: Thoughts on Our Changing Workplaces
July 2018
Every seasoned human resources professional is aware that “investigation is the new arbitration”. When addressing issues of all but the most serious and blatant misconduct, employers are now routinely counselled that if they shoot first and ask questions later, they do so at their peril.
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Introducing The Smell Test: Disciplining An Employee For Body Odour
July 2018
Summer is here. And with it comes the awkward but very real workplace issue of employee hygiene. The question is, what can employers do about an employee with body odour and hygiene issues? A recent decision of the BC Human Rights Tribunal, Southwell v. CKF Inc., 2017 BCHRT 83 (“Southwell”) provides guidance.
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