Labour and Employment Law Blog

A recent decision from the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) found that searching an employee’s work laptop may be an unreasonable interference with privacy rights under section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (“Charter”).^[1]

Section 8 of the Charter protects against unreasonable search and seizure. While “search and seizure” is a concept ...

Litigation takes time and money. Effective legal counsel use various processes available to help clients achieve the best outcome in each case. 

Summary trials are an important procedural option in litigation.  In many cases, they can provide an efficient and quicker means to obtain a judgment.  In January 2024, Alberta’s old summary trial process was replaced with a ...

Is your organization on the right track toward accessibility, diversity and inclusion? As of June 2021, the Accessible British Columbia Act (the “Act”) is law in British Columbia. The Act’s intent is to make the province more inclusive, including for persons with disabilities.

Earlier this year, the government released the first regulation under the Act, the ...

The Government of B.C. has tabled legislation which, for now, entitles employees to three paid sick days for leave related to COVID-19. Employers will be required to pay employees their full wages (based on an average of the prior 30 days). The proposed law (Bill 13) also allows for a permanent paid sick leave to be prescribed in the future.

The B.C. government has promised it ...

On November 9, 2020, the federal government announced a further temporary extension to permitted layoff periods for federally regulated private-sector employees.

Background

In June of 2020, the federal government extended the time periods for layoffs under the Canada Labour Standards Regulations to allow federally regulated private-sector employers more time to ...

Today, the SCC handed down an important decision for employers in Matthews v. Ocean Nutrition Canada Limited. There are at least three significant implications of this case in which the SCC sought to clarify the remedies available to employees on termination without cause:

1. An employer has a common law duty to provide reasonable notice of dismissal. This is an independent ...

In the recent decision of Uber Technologies Inc. v. Heller, 2020 SCC 16 (“Heller”), the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) found that the arbitration clause in Uber’s standard form service agreement with its drivers was invalid.

This decision clears the way for the proposed class action lawsuit brought by David Heller on behalf of Ontario Uber drivers. If that class ...

As we have outlined in Part 1 and Part 2 of our blog series, ‘Returning the Workplace to Safe Operation’, employers have a duty to reduce the risk of COVID-19 in the workplace as much as reasonably practical. Consequently, employers may determine it is appropriate to conduct certain active screening, such as questionnaires, temperature screening, and testing ...

In A-Teck Appraisals Ltd. v Constandinou, 2020 BCSC 135 (“Constandinou”), the B.C. Supreme Court stayed a wrongful dismissal action on the basis that it was precluded by the arbitration clause in the former employee’s employment contract. The B.C. court took a different approach than the Ontario Court of Appeal in Heller v. Uber Technologies Inc. et al, 2019 ONCA 1 ...

Whether you are looking for reasons to celebrate something with your employees, Data Privacy Day on January 28 is a good excuse.

It is well recognized that employees are a leading cause of data breaches.  It often occurs as a relatively innocent email sent to the wrong address, or an email with the wrong attachment.  It could be a lost or stolen USB storage device or laptop without ...