A recent Ontario decision serves as a good reminder to employers to be weary of entering into oral employment agreements. In Mineault v. E.S. Fox Limited, the employee was hired in September 2014 from a union hiring hall as a General Foreman for a specific project. Of note, the position was outside of the scope...
A very recent decision from the British Columbia Superior Court reaffirms that short service employees will be awarded disproportionate reasonable notice awards if the circumstances fit. Mr. Greenless worked for Starline Windows Ltd. for 6 months before being terminated and was awarded 6 months reasonable notice. Here is what led to Mr. Greenless being awarded...
The Ontario Court of Appeal recently provided some much-needed guidance on how to identify a dependent contractor in Thurston v. Ontario (Children’s Lawyer) (“Thurston”). A dependent contractor is a third category of worker that falls between an employee and an independent contractor. Like an independent contractor, a dependent contractor is not entitled to any of...
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently awarded a whopping $1.3 million to a former general manager of a funeral home in North Bay, Ontario. In, McGuinty v. 1845035 Ontario Inc. (McGuinty Funeral Home), the employee was a third-generation owner of a funeral home in North Bay, Ontario. The employee sold the business and entered...
In Bassanese v German Canadian News Company Limited et al, an employer learned the hard way that ignoring a complaint of workplace harassment can result in serious financial consequences. The employee in this case was a 74-year-old clerk with 19 years of service. She was repeatedly verbally harassed by a male co-worker, including him screaming...
In 2017, Adam Knauff, an Ontario firefighter, was working for his employer – Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry in British Columbia – fighting forest fires. Mr. Knauff is a self-described “ethical vegan” and has filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario claiming that his employer did not provide him with...
Federal employers finally have an in-force date for previously proposed legislation as the federal government recently confirmed the changes to the Canada Labour Code will come into force on September 1, 2019. You may recall, these changes were proposed as part of the Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2 (Bill C-63) and the Budget Implementation...
The Alberta government has proposed Bill 2: An Act to Make Alberta Open for Business (“Bill 2”). If passed, Bill 2 will repeal or revise some of the workplace amendments implemented by the former NDP government in 2017 under Bill 17: Fair and Family Friendly Workplaces Act (“Bill 17”). Bill 2 intends to introduce the...
As most employers who operate in Ontario are aware, in accordance with the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000, as amended (the “ESA”), an employer who terminates an employee without cause must provide an employee with statutory severance pay if: 1. The employee has five years of service or more; and 2. The employer has a...
Surprise, surprise…another Bill but this time in British Columbia. On April 29, 2019, the BC Government tabled Bill 8: Employment Standards Amendment Act, 2019. If passed into law, Bill 8 will be the first major revision of the Employment Standards Act (“ESA”) in about 15 years. Some of the highlights of the amendments to take...