Labour and Employment Law Blog

Generally speaking, when an employee is dismissed without cause, they are entitled to notice or pay in lieu of notice as set out in the British Columbia Employment Standards Act (“ESA”). However, there are certain exceptions to this rule. One such exception is where the employee is offered and refuses reasonable alternative employment by their employer.

Legislative ...

In our earlier blog post, we provided an overview of Bill 2, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Act, which if passed into law, would recognize the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30) as a public holiday in British Columbia and would establish it as a statutory holiday under the Employment Standards Act.

As expected, Bill 2 quickly made its way ...

On January 1, 2023, an amendment to the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”) came into force that creates a new exemption for business and information technology (IT) consultants.^[1] This means that if an individual meets the criteria for a “business consultant” or “information technology consultant” under the ESA, then the consultant is ...

In Yates v. Langley Motor Sport Centre Ltd., 2022 BCCA 398 the British Columbia Court of Appeal (“BCAA”) recently resolved much of the uncertainty surrounding whether or not payments received under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit program (“CERB”) could be deducted from damages awarded for wrongful dismissal.

The BCCA unanimously held that CERB payments ...

We often assist employers in defending claims by managers who allege that the employer failed to pay overtime. In this blog post, we explore some of the common pitfalls we see in such cases.

Many employers assume that managers are never entitled to additional pay for any additional hours worked, and that the manager’s wage or salary is their entire entitlement to ...

Further to our previous blog post on paid sick days, the British Columbia government has just announced amendments to paid sick days under the Employment Standards Act. The amendments are:

• Calendar Year: The current language in the Act says that employees are entitled to five paid sick days in “each employment year.” This was administratively burdensome for employers ...

On February 28, 2022, the Government of Ontario introduced Bill 88, Working for Workers Act, 2022 (“Bill 88”), which if passed, would introduce new legislation regarding digital platform workers, as well as amending the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”) and other statutes. Read on to find out the key points in Bill 88 that may affect your business.

Digital ...

On November 24, 2021, the British Columbia government announced that, effective January 1, 2022, British Columbia employees who are covered by the Employment Standards Act and who have worked more than 90 consecutive days will be entitled to five paid days of personal illness or injury leave per year.

Employees who qualify for the paid leave must be paid an “average ...

In response to COVID-19, the federal government and the provinces have introduced various measures to mitigate the financial impact across the country. One of these measures is the introduction of a new type of type of unpaid, job-protected leave related to COVID-19.

As of the date of this bulletin, BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince ...

It has been several months since Covid-19 forced many people to suddenly shift to working from home. One major benefit of this arrangement is the potential for employers to save on considerable overhead expenses – for example rent and internet connectivity in office buildings. It is important to ask, however, whether these costs are being eliminated, or simply shifted to ...