Labour and Employment Law Blog

Canadian employers will soon encounter a new landscape when it comes to drug and alcohol testing in safety sensitive workplaces as cannabis use is set to be legalized in October 2018. Employers are faced with balancing employee privacy rights in terms of their off duty conduct, with safety concerns in the workplace. Of paramount concern for employers is whether an employee ...

Last week, we posted about the usefulness of probationary periods, both for unionized and non-unionized workers.

In each Canadian jurisdiction, there are rules under employment standards legislation regarding the period of employment during which a non-unionized employee can be dismissed without cause and without notice or pay in lieu of notice. If the probationary ...

A former flight attendant of WestJet, Mandalena Lewis, has commenced a class action lawsuit on behalf of a proposed class of WestJet employees, alleging that the company breached its promise to provide a harassment-free workplace.

Ms. Lewis alleges that she suffered sexual assault at the hands of a pilot who had previously engaged in similar behaviour with another flight ...

On Monday April 9, 2018, B.C.'s provincial government introduced Bill 6, which amends the B.C. Employment Standards Act to provide for new and extended leaves for employees. Bill 6 is a preliminary step in the government’s intended overhaul of the Employment Standards Act, with further amendments expected to be proposed in the future. The new and extended leaves are ...

Alberta’s Court of Appeal has upheld the decision of the Court of Queen’s Bench granting the Union’s request for an interim injunction. The interim injunction blocks Suncor’s random drug testing policy at the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo site. The injunction will apply until the underlying arbitration is decided; a final decision will be made either by ...

Weinstein, #TimesUp, #MeToo, #WhyWeWearBlack. Sexual harassment in the workplace is being talked about more than ever, and the Hollywood movement has shone a particular light on how power imbalance may lead to vulnerable workers being taken advantage of in the workplace.

A recent Ontario case is a prime example. Four female former employees of Soulpepper Theatre have ...

In today’s Supreme Court of Canada decision in British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and Schrenk, a split court held that British Columbia’s Human Rights Code provides protection to employees from the discriminatory conduct of persons unrelated to their own employer, provided that the discriminatory conduct arose in their employment setting.

The facts of the case ...

The decision of Mr. Justice Paul Belzil in the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench granting an interim injunction to block Suncor’s random drug testing policy has now been released. The Court applied the three part test for an injunction: there is a serious issue to be tried, there will be irreparable harm if the injunction is not granted, and the balance of convenience favours ...

Mr. Justice Paul Belzil in the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench has granted Unifor an injunction blocking Suncor’s random drug testing policy for its oilsands facilities in northeastern Alberta.  

We will update this with further information once the decision is reported.