Resources

  • The Significant (and Avoidable) Costs of a Poorly Run Workplace Investigation

    October 2017

    by Brandon Hillis

    A recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal acts as a cautionary tale for all employers when it comes to conducting (or not conducting) workplace investigations.

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  • B.C. Court Clarifies Limits on Departing Employee’s Use of Employer Information and Diversion of “Corporate Opportunity”

    October 2017

    In Sateri (Shanghai) Management Limited v. Vinall, 2017 BCSC 491, the B.C. Supreme Court summed up the law governing how far a departing employee can go in effectively assisting a new employer, including through sharing his or her current employer’s confidential information or in diverting a “corporate opportunity”.  The case also confirms that substantial damages will only be awarded against an employee if the employer can show it has suffered a resulting financial loss.

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  • Justifying Random Drug and Alcohol Testing in the Workplace

    October 2017

    by Graeme McFarlane

    In a unanimous decision released Sept 28, 2017, the Alberta Court of Appeal (“ABCA”) upheld a judicial review decision which found that the majority of a grievance arbitration panel (“Majority Panel”) had improperly decided that Suncor’s random drug and alcohol testing policy was unenforceable.

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  • The Clause That Saved The Company $7 million: Is It Bionic or Just Good Drafting?

    September 2017

    by Graeme McFarlane

    Terminating the employment of a senior executive can be expensive business. In normal circumstances, a dismissed employee is entitled to be paid all the remuneration the employee would have received had he or she worked through the “reasonable notice period”.  For some employees, this would mean payments on account of bonuses, stock plans and other performance metrics.  However, these expenses can be managed if the employer puts proper employment contracts in place.

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  • Arbitrator Determines that Employee Did Not Have Reasonable Expectation of Privacy When Using Work Computer to Run Charity

    September 2017

    by Danielle Scorda

    In Toronto (City) v. CUPE, Local 79 (Wright Grievance), [2016] O.L.A.A. No. 445 (Misra), an Ontario arbitrator considered whether an employer can rely on documents obtained from an employee’s work computer to uphold the termination of her employment for using employer resources and time to run her own charity.

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  • Restricting Illegal Picketing – The “Flexible Wrongful Action Approach”

    September 2017

    by Michael R. Kilgallin

    Over the last decade there have been numerous cases which rely on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to protect and arguably expand a union’s right to picket during a labour dispute.  Despite this trend, the courts have consistently stated that those protections do not apply to “illegal picketing”, which contains tortious or criminal conduct.  The courts have also applied a “flexible wrongful action approach” in granting injunction orders to prevent illegal picketing.

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  • Timing is Everything: Ensuring your Employment Agreements are Enforceable

    September 2017

    by Maggie Campbell

    Most employers know the value of having written employment agreements in place for their non-union or excluded employees, particularly when it comes to setting out obligations relating to termination. However, the timing of when a contract is signed can make all the difference to whether it is legally binding and you can rely on its terms, or whether common law principles apply instead.

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  • Firing an employee? Be nice.

    August 2017

    by Mike Hamata

    Can bad faith employer conduct during the course of dismissal lead to both aggravated damages and a longer notice period? On July 7, 2017, the British Columbia Court of Appeal revisited those issues in Lau v. Royal Bank of Canada, 2017 BCCA 253.

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  • Employers Take Note: Costs of a Just Cause Misstep Could be Significant

    July 2017

    by Danny BernsteinTamara Navaratnam

    The Supreme Court of Canada recently denied leave to appeal of the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in Fernandes v. Peel Educational & Tutorial Services Ltd. c.o.b. Mississauga Private School, 2016 ONCA 468.  This case is a timely reminder for employers in relation to two issues: (1) the standard of misconduct that qualifies as “just cause”; and (2) the potentially significant liability that an employer can incur when a wrongfully dismissed employee becomes disabled during his or her reasonable notice period.

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  • Complaints by Cisgendered Men Alleging Discrimination on Grounds of Gender Identity or Expression Dismissed by Ontario Human Rights Tribunal

    July 2017

    by James D. Kondopulos

    The B.C. Human Rights Code was amended in mid-2016 to include “gender identity or expression” as protected grounds.  As of the date this article was written, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has not interpreted or applied the amendment in any of its decisions.

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