Labour and Employment Law Blog

On January 1, 2020, changes to the Northwest Territories Employment Standards Act (the “Act”) and the Employment Standards Regulation (the “Regulation”) came into force. The substantive changes include new job-protected leaves of absence, additional restrictions on youth employment, and new protections for domestic workers. These amendments follow ...

Continuing our seasonal theme of “legal gifts” for employers, a recent decision of the British Columbia Provincial Court provides a glimmer of hope for employers with respect to notice of termination of employment for short service employees. 

In Brash v. Gustafson’s Auto Service Ltd., 2019 BCPC 259, the plaintiff, William Brash, accepted employment as Sales ...

Employers who operate safety sensitive worksites will find the recent decision of the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal in Everitt v Homewood Health Inc., 2019 AHRC 36 of interest.  In this decision, the complainant, Brad Everitt, was a member of a building trade union and worker in the construction industry.  The respondent, Homewood Health Inc., administered a rapid site ...

Summer is often a time for rest and relaxation but federally regulated employers will need to spend at least part of the summer months preparing for significant changes to the Canada Labour Code (the “Code”) which come into effect September 1, 2019. These changes are in addition to amendments that have already come into force and further changes that are pending, all in ...

On May 27, 2019, the Government of Alberta introduced Bill 2: An Act to Make Alberta Open For Business (Bill 2), in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Bill 2 introduces a number of changes to labour and employment legislation in Alberta and is partially aimed at rolling back certain changes introduced in 2017 by the previous NDP government.

In addition, pursuant to an ...

As the May long weekend approaches, it may be a good time for employers to consider reviewing or implementing social media policies. With the accessibility of social media, employees should be aware of corporate codes of conduct that apply to social media use.

A social media policy (also called a social networking policy) is a corporate code of conduct that provides ...

On April 29, 2019, Labour Minister Harry Bains introduced in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for first reading Bill 8, the Employment Standards Amendment Act, 2019. If passed into law, Bill 8 will be the first major revision of the Employment Standards Act (the "ESA") in about 15 years.

Bill 8 introduces a number of changes to the ESA. Notably, the proposed ...

The Ontario Court of Appeal in Ruston v. Keddco Mfg (2011) Ltd., 2019 ONCA 125, upheld the lower court’s decision awarding over $1.1 million in damages in a wrongful dismissal action.

Facts

Mr. Ruston, the President of Keddco, was terminated after 11 years of service. At the termination meeting, Mr. Ruston was advised that his employment was terminated for cause because he ...

Brianne Duke filed a BC Human Rights Tribunal complaint, 2018 BCHRT 283, that when shopping at a grocery store operated by Sobey’s in Burnaby, she was approached by an employee who told her inappropriate jokes referencing sex. Ms. Duke alleged that the behaviour by the Sobey’s employee amounted to discrimination on the basis of sex contrary to the (British Columbia ...

The new year brings an opportunity for reflection on the past year with a view to making improvements moving forward. It is also a good time for British Columbia employers to undertake a required annual review of workplace bullying and harassment policies and procedures.

Under section 115 of the British Columbia Workers Compensation Act, employers have a general duty to ...