Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Employment law articles for U.S. companies with employees in Canada. Written by the attorneys at Fasken Martineau law firm.
By Marc Rodrigue Unionized employees in Canada can’t bring employment claims to court. This is so even where there is no longer any collective agreement in place. So ruled an Ontario court recently in Baker v. Navistar Canada Inc.
By Gilda Villaran As we reported in May, Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) has been under fire in recent months. The use of the TFWP to facilitate offshoring arrangements has received much attention from the prime minister, the minister of citizenship and immigration, and the media. The immediate reaction of the government was to […]
By Julia Kennedy With each summer comes a wave of new graduates and returning students looking for ways to gain career experience. This summer, the media spotlight has been focused on the nature of unpaid internships in the United States and Canada. They are no longer limited to the not-for-profit sector. It’s probably a good […]
By Clayton Jones Last week we told you about the recent decision in Irving Pulp & Paper where the Supreme Court of Canada severely limited an employer’s right to perform random alcohol and drug testing in the workplace. The implications of the Irving decision will undoubtedly be far-reaching, including on two prominent cases currently being […]
By Kyla Stott-Jess, Katie Clayton, and Hannah Roskey Canada’s highest court has ruled that random drug and alcohol testing in the workplace violates privacy rights. In Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, Local 30 v. Irving Pulp & Paper Ltd., the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) considered the validity of a random alcohol testing […]
By Marc Rodrigue Hiring a new employee can be a lengthy process, fraught with complex evaluations of skills, qualifications, and other attributes. The whole process must of course comply with applicable provincial and federal antidiscrimination laws. What people say during the process may provide evidence that a hiring decision is discriminatory. Where multiple people are […]
By Frederic Parisien Can Canadian employers use information from their employees’ Facebook pages in managing the employment relationship? Not an age-old question, but one debated in recent years. In many provinces, the answer was “yes.” But in other provinces, such as Quebec, some commentators took a more cautious approach. In a recent decision, the appeal […]
By Keri Bennett When a long-service costume designer was dismissed following a workplace harassment investigation, a British Colombia arbitrator found the company’s no-hire ban for all future productions to be excessive, since there was a lack of progressive discipline. Despite finding that the fired employee had engaged in longstanding and widespread harassment of junior employees, […]
By Rosalind H. Cooper Most occupational health and safety statutes across Canada contain provisions that prohibit employer reprisals for workplace health and safety matters. While the outcome of complaints made by workers regarding employer reprisals is always fact specific, employers had been taking comfort from several recent decisions. Those decisions suggested that complaints regarding employer […]
By Katherine Pollock A recent decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal, Stanley v. Advertising Directory Solutions, considered the rights of an employee of a U.S. company who was working for a Canadian subsidiary when terminated. The court found she was entitled to notice or pay in lieu of notice upon termination according to […]