Resources
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Yet Another Turn in the Saga of “Family Status” Discrimination
January 2017
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
December 2016
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
November 2016
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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Maintaining Privilege Over An Employer’s Internal Accident Investigation
October 2016
A recent decision of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench underscores the importance of taking early steps to retain legal counsel to assist employers with serious workplace accidents. In Alberta v. Suncor Energy Inc, 2016 ABQB 264, certain documents and records created or collected during an accident investigation were protected by litigation and solicitor-client privilege where legal counsel made decisions with respect to the accident investigation within hours of the event.
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A Bad Termination Meeting Could Lead to an Unenforceable Release
October 2016
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
September 2016
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?
September 2016
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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Refusal of Work Not For Safety Reasons: Discharge For Just and Reasonable Cause Upheld
September 2016
In a recent decision, Arbitrator Lorne Slotnick upheld the discharge of an employee who attempted to improperly use medical restrictions and the right to refuse unsafe work under occupational health and safety legislation as the basis for refusing a work assignment.
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Just How Much Might Those Hurt Feelings Be Worth In British Columbia? BC Court of Appeal Weighs In
September 2016
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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Culpable Inefficiency and a Smorgasbord of Issues
August 2016
Arbitrator Larry Steinberg faced a plethora of issues in the recent case of Toronto District School Board v. CUPE, Local 4400 (Naccarato Grievance), [2015] O.L.A.A. No. 429. The decision makes for an interesting read and contains a number of chestnuts that are useful for practitioners in the world of labour arbitration.
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