The BC Supreme Court recently affirmed the high threshold required of employers when purporting to dismiss an employee for just cause. In Chu v China Southern Airlines Company Limited, 2023 BCSC 21, the court found that the plaintiff employee had been dismissed without cause and awarded $150,000 in aggravated and punitive damages in addition to the 20 months reasonable ...
If revising your employment and independent contractor agreements is on the “to do” list for 2023, the recent case of Quick Pass Master Tutorial School Ltd. v Zhao, 2022 BCSC 1846 is a good reminder to review any restrictive covenants in those agreements. The law in this area is always evolving and restrictive covenants can be difficult to enforce without careful ...
In the recent decision of Parmar v. Tribe Management Inc., 2022 BCSC 1675, the BC Supreme Court held that placing an employee on unpaid leave because they refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine did not amount to constructive dismissal. This case is one of the first civil court decisions in Canada that considered the validity of mandatory vaccination policies where employees ...
In the recent decision of Matijczack v. Homewood Health Inc., 2021 BCSC 1658 (Homewood Health), the BC Supreme Court confirmed that employers must provide consideration to make amendments to existing employment agreements enforceable.
Following a 2018 decision from the BC Court of Appeal (Rosas v. Toca, 2018 BCCA 191), the law relating to consideration for contractual ...
The Ontario Court of Appeal in Dawe v. The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada, 2019 ONCA 512 (“Dawe”) confirmed that 24 months constitutes “the high end of the appropriate range of reasonable notice” for employee dismissal, and only “exceptional circumstances” will support a notice period in excess of 24 months.
At the time of his dismissal, the ...
A recent BC Supreme Court case is yet another reminder that courts will carefully scrutinize any term which purports to displace an employee’s common law entitlement to reasonable notice of termination of employment, particularly where the term has not been clearly and unambiguously communicated and accepted by the employee. Employers can contract out of the ...
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Lawson Lundell's Labour and Employment Law Blog provides updates on the most recent legal developments impacting the Canadian workplace and offers practical tips for employers. We cover a range of topics, including labour relations, employment law, collective bargaining, human rights, employment standards, employment equity, workers' compensation, business immigration, privacy, occupational health and safety and pensions and employee benefits.
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