Labour and Employment Law Blog

The holiday season is approaching, and many employees will be taking well-earned vacation. It is a good time for a refresher on statutory vacation requirements under the British Columbia Employment Standards Act (the "Act").

British Columbia employers must give employees who are subject to the Act both vacation time off of work and vacation pay.

Vacation Time

Employers ...

On November 8, 2018, British Columbia's government passed Bill 48, the Temporary Foreign Worker Protection Act (the "Act").  While the measures included in the Act will not come into effect until the government issues additional regulations next year, employers that rely on temporary foreign workers may want to familiarize themselves with their forthcoming legal ...

On November 1, 2018, the British Columbia Government tabled Bill 50, Human Rights Code Amendment Act, 2018.  The Bill would amend the Human Rights Code to reflect the recommendations contained in the December 2017 report of the Parliamentary Secretary of Sport and Multiculturalism, “A Human Rights Commission for the 21st Century: British Columbians Talk About Human ...

Last week we posted, “Changes to Labour Relations Code Proposed in New Report” where we outlined some notable recommendations in the panel’s report for amendments to the provincial labour relations code.

This post serves as a reminder to federally-regulated employers of upcoming amendments to the Canada Labour Code (“Code”). 

These amendments include:

In February 2018, the British Columbia Minister of Labour appointed an independent panel to review the Labour Relations Code (the "Code") and recommend changes. The panel's report was publicly released on October 25, 2018. The report, entitled Recommendations for Amendments to the Labour Relations Code, sets out 29 recommendations.

Notably, the report recommends:

• The ...

The big day has arrived. On October 17, 2018, the federal Cannabis Act came into force, legalizing cannabis and related products for recreational use. In our October 17th post we provided some top tips for employers in a previous post.  

Since the federal government announced legalization, the practical impact of legal cannabis on employers has been unclear, causing a good ...

This is probably not the first article you will read today on cannabis. Cannabis is now legal in Canada, but strictly regulated. Due to the intersection between human rights, privacy, and occupational health and safety laws, employers often have a challenging task in ensuring their employees are free from impairment.

Here are our top tips for employers:

1. Have an up-to-date ...

Last month, human rights issues hit the headlines as former employees of IBM Corp. have filed a class action lawsuit in the United States alleging age discrimination. The former employees claim that IBM has been laying off older employees over the course of a number of years in order to create a younger workforce.

Closer to home, last year the Public Service Labour Relations ...

Much attention has been given to workplace policies and procedures regarding the use of cannabis by employees following the legalisation of the recreational use of cannabis in Canada effective October 17, 2018. Employers should also consider the impact of the change in Canadian law for employees who travel outside of Canada. Legalisation of cannabis in Canada does not ...

For our clients in the federal sector, we often receive questions about the unjust dismissal provisions in the Canada Labour Code (the “Code”).

Under the Code, federally regulated employees in non-management positions with more than 12 months of service are protected from unjust dismissal. If such an employee is dismissed and the dismissal is unjust, the employee ...