Labour and Employment Law Blog

On June 20, 2024, the Budget Implementation Act received Royal Assent. The Act amended a number of federal statutes, including the Canada Labour Code (the “Code”), which applies to federally regulated employers such as airlines and banks. Most relevant are the changes regarding presumption of employee status and disconnecting from work.

Presumption of Employee ...

In a recent decision, Société des casinos du Québec inc. v. Association des cadres de la Société des casinos du Québec, the Supreme Court of Canada determined that the exclusion of managers from the definition of employee in the Quebec Labour Code (the “Code”) did not violate section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the “Charter”) or ...

Employers often rely on probationary periods when dismissing new employees who are not a good “fit” for their organization. But can probationary employees be dismissed for any reason? A recent decision from the BC Human Rights Tribunal provides a valuable reminder that human rights obligations apply to all employees, including probationary employees.

Facts

The ...

It is not uncommon, but frustrating for employers, when an employee who is off work for an alleged illness provides no doctor’s note or a doctor’s note that simply says something like “Patient needs to be off work for a month”. The employee then assumes that they are entitled to have the time off with no further questions asked. Sometimes their doctors think this too.  ...

The B.C. Pay Transparency Act (the “PTA”) came into force on May 11, 2023. On October 23, 2023, the Pay Transparency Regulation (the “Regulation”) was made and provides needed clarity on the content of annual pay transparency reports.

The goal of the PTA is to help close the gender pay gap by addressing systemic gender discrimination in the workplace. The PTA applies ...

In Alberta Health Services v. Johnston, 2023 ABKB 209, the Alberta Court of King’s Bench identified a new tort of harassment in response to a Calgary mayoral candidate and talk show host, Kevin Johnston, spreading “misinformation, conspiracy theories, and hate” against Alberta Health Services (AHS) and AHS employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tort of ...

One of the vexing issues that employers face in dealing with poor performers in the non-union context is whether it is more cost effective to terminate the employee’s employment without cause or to put the employee on a performance improvement plan (“PIP”), with the goal of establishing termination for just cause when the employee fails to meet the performance ...

Important new legislative changes impacting federally regulated employers will come into effect in 2021: the Pay Equity Act and a minimum wage requirement. Details on both these measures and how that will affect employers are examined below. 

Pay Equity Act

The federal Pay Equity Act comes into effect on August 31, 2021. The Act applies to federally regulated employers who ...

Employers who are faced with employee requests for accommodation on the basis of family status may find that the response to such requests depends on the province of employment. In a recent decision, United Nurses of Alberta v Alberta Health Services (“United Nurses”), the Alberta Court of Appeal expressly rejected a line of cases from other jurisdictions that impose ...

Following the discovery of what are believed to be the remains of 215 indigenous children in unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops, BC, the federal government fast-tracked Bill C-5, An Act to amend the Bills of Exchange Act, the Interpretation Act and the Canada Labour Code (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation). The legislation received royal ...