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 Hannah Roskey Off-duty misconduct could lead to an employee’s dismissal. But a recent court decision in Ontario suggests that the circumstances where that will amount to just cause for termination are quite limited. The court found that an employee who had been fired after being criminally charged with sexual assault was wrongfully dismissed. The […]
by Alexis Charpentier Workplace harassment is a complicated and evolving area of the law. The lines between an employer’s right to manage its employees and harassment are often blurred. Fortunately, the Court of Appeal of Québec has provided some clarity in a recent decision in Syndicat des travailleurs de l’aluminium d’Alma, local 9490 (Syndicat des […]
by David McDonald In Canada, collective agreements are generally accessible to the public. Canadian jurisdictions provide mechanisms to file collective agreements with government authorities, and it is not uncommon for the union or the employer to post their agreement on the web. However, the process of bargaining itself is private and typically carefully guarded by […]
by Clayton Jones In Canada, legislative developments continue to occur regarding the issues of gender identity and gender expression and have gained much attention in recent months. This is due in part to the increased acknowledgement of the challenges faced by transgendered people including in the workplace. One of the results is that employers are being […]
by Keri Bennett In Canada, courts can award two extraordinary forms of damages in a wrongful dismissal action: aggravated damages or punitive damages. In a wrongful dismissal action, employees who are terminated for cause often claim that they should be awarded aggravated and/or punitive damages in addition to reasonable notice damages. In a recent decision […]
by Rachel Younan Recent case law has overwhelmingly rejected termination clauses that purport to limit an employee’s entitlements upon termination to the minimum notice required by applicable employment standards legislation. In Ontario, provisions that have failed to reference severance pay and/or benefit continuation have been found to be invalid, resulting in common law notice that […]
by Keri Bennett Where an employee has been dismissed from a job without sufficient notice, he or she may look to his or her former employer for compensation for any losses suffered. However, the employee has a corresponding duty to try to limit any such losses by looking for comparable employment. A failure to act […]
by Carla Oliver When a person applies for a job, the job generally comes with a title that an employer believes to be descriptive of the role and reflective of the duties and responsibilities of the position. In many cases, an employer’s assignment of a job title to a particular role is done without a […]
by Jackie VanDerMeulen Laws aimed at making organizations more accessible for Canadians with disabilities have been enacted by various jurisdictions across Canada in recent years. The federal government recently announced that it also plans to introduce legislation to promote accessibility. It will apply to federally regulated employers, such as banks, cross-border transportation providers, and telecommunications […]
by Kyla Stott-Jess and Mitchell Barnard The phrase “class action lawsuit” can strike fear in the executive ranks of any large company. The development of class action law in in the employment context has been slower north of the 49th parallel than in the United States. Recently, though, a line of cases has been paving […]