In EllisDon Construction Ltd. v. Labourers’ International Union of North America, Local 183, 2021 CanLII 50159, an Arbitrator in Ontario decided that when the intrusiveness of an employer’s compulsory Rapid COVID-19 Antigen...more
7/14/2021
/ Arbitration ,
Canada ,
Collective Agreements ,
Construction Workers ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Screening Procedures ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
In O’Reilly v. ClearMRI Solutions Ltd., 2021 ONCA 385 (ClearMRI Solutions), the Ontario Court of Appeal (OCA) decided that the motion judge erred in concluding that a majority shareholder of an employee’s contractual employer...more
7/8/2021
/ Canada ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
International Labor Laws ,
Ontario ,
Responsible Party ,
Shareholders ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour
In a wrongful dismissal claim in Ontario, it is up to the employer to prove that employees failed to mitigate their damages and that had they taken reasonable steps to do so, they would have likely obtained equivalent or...more
6/29/2021
/ Bonuses ,
Canada ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Damages ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Hiring & Firing ,
International Labor Laws ,
Mitigation ,
Notice Requirements ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wrongful Termination
The recent Ontario decision, Hawkes v. Max Aicher (North America) Limited, 2021 ONSC 4290 (Max Aicher), establishes that global employment is factored into the calculation of an employer’s payroll under s. 64 of the...more
6/28/2021
/ Canada ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Standards Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
International Labor Laws ,
Ontario ,
Ontario Labour Relations Board ,
Payroll Expenses ,
Severance Pay ,
Wage and Hour
As we have written previously, the test to determine whether an employer has a duty to accommodate family status is not consistent in all Canadian jurisdictions....more
To date, few decisions in Canada have considered whether the amount of the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) employees receive after their job termination should be deducted from their damages in lieu of common law...more
6/9/2021
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Canada ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Damages ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair-Notice Standard ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Layoffs ,
Wrongful Termination
In Phillips v. Westcan, 2020 ABQB 764, the Court of Queen’s Bench for Alberta denied an employee’s application for a permanent injunction against his non-unionized employer to prohibit the employer from randomly testing its...more
In Perretta v. Rand A Technology Corporation, 2021 ONSC 2111, Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice ordered an employer to pay an employee damages for reasonable notice at common law when it decided the employer repudiated its...more
In Anderson v Total Instant Lawns Ltd, 2021 ONSC 2933 (Total Instant Lawns), an employee claimed her job was terminated and sought damages for wrongful dismissal. The employer denied the employee was dismissed and argued...more
5/13/2021
/ Breach of Contract ,
Canada ,
Contract Terms ,
Counterclaims ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Ontario ,
Repudiation ,
Wrongful Termination
On April 23, 2021, Ontario filed Regulations 313/21, 314/21 and 315/21 under the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020. The Regulations create new requirements relating to the temporary removal of...more
In Currie v. Nylene Canada Inc., 2021 ONSC 1922, Ontario’s Superior Court held that “exceptional circumstances” existed to justify making an award that exceeded the 24-month “high end” amount of reasonable notice for...more
In De Facendis v. Toronto Parking Authority, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice held that when a claim for workplace sexual harassment and workplace sexual assault “arises under the collective agreement,” a labour...more
In Nahum v. Honeycomb Hospitality Inc., 2021 ONSC 1455, the Ontario Superior Court determined that an employee’s pregnancy should impact the calculation of her reasonable notice period for dismissal. The court awarded the...more
In McGuinty v. 1845035 Ontario Inc. (McGuinty Funeral Home), 2020 ONCA 816 (McGuinty), the Court of Appeal for Ontario upheld the Ontario Superior Court’s decision to award an employee one of the highest damage awards ever...more
Two recent decisions of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal (BCHRT) applied the strict standard test for family status discrimination established by the British Columbia Court of Appeal (BCCA) in Health Sciences...more
On November 19, 2020, Bill C-9, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act (Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy and Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy) (Bill C-9) received Royal Assent. Bill C-9’s purpose is to implement targeted support to...more
On October 18, 2019, we wrote about the tests currently used to establish family status discrimination in Canada, and recommended policies and programs employers can put in place for employees that need accommodations due to...more
In response to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases in Ontario, the province has imposed health screening obligations on employers. On September 25, 2020, the province’s government filed Regulation 530/20, which was made...more
10/1/2020
/ Canada ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Infectious Diseases ,
International Labor Laws ,
Labor Regulations ,
Ministry of Health ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Risk Management ,
Screening Procedures
A recent Ontario Superior Court decision, Kerner v. Information Builders (Canada) Inc., 2020 ONSC 2975, clarified whether an employee was entitled to commissions that were “booked and billed” after his job termination, but...more
9/22/2020
/ Canada ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
International Labor Laws ,
Notice Requirements ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Sales Commissions ,
Wrongful Termination
On July 16, 2020, Prime Minister Trudeau announced a federal investment of more than $19 billion that will provide support to Canadians through the Safe Restart Agreement....more
Although Canadian employers that provide essential services have remained open since the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic, other employers were required to close their physical operations. Despite this, the nature of the...more
On May 29, 2020, the government of Ontario filed Ontario Regulation 228/20 (Regulation) under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA). The Regulation amends layoff and constructive dismissal rules exclusively under the ESA,...more
Recently, in Bank of Montreal v. Li, 2020 FCA 22, the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) dismissed the Bank of Montreal’s (BMO’s) appeal of the decision of the Federal Court (FC) in Bank of Montreal v. Li, 2018 FC 1298....more
At the time this Insight was prepared, there were eight reported cases of the coronavirus in Canada; three are in Ontario and five in British Columbia. The first of these cases was confirmed on January 25 and the last was...more
2/19/2020
/ Bereavement Leave ,
Best Practices ,
Canada ,
China ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Infectious Diseases ,
International Travel ,
Leave of Absence ,
Medical Leave ,
OHSA ,
Paid Family Leave Law ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Public Health ,
Risk Management ,
Sick Leave ,
Travel Restrictions ,
Traveling Employee ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Safety
Yenovkian v. Gulian, 2019 ONSC 7279 is a recent family law decision that is significant beyond the family law context, including in the employment law context. In this decision, Justice Kristjanson of the Ontario Superior...more
2/14/2020
/ Canada ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Damages ,
Emotional Distress Damages ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Evidence ,
False Light ,
International Labor Laws ,
Intrusion Upon Seclusion ,
Invasion of Privacy ,
Material Dissemination ,
Name and Likeness ,
Ontario ,
Privacy Torts ,
Public Disclosure ,
Reputational Injury ,
Restatement of Torts