In Beach Place Ventures Ltd. v. Employment Standards Tribunal, 2022 BCCA 147, the British Columbia Court of Appeal (BCCA) upheld a determination by the Employment Standards Tribunal (Tribunal) that three taxi drivers...more
On April 11, 2022, Bill 88, Working for Workers Act, 2022 received Royal Assent and became law. As previously discussed, in addition to enacting the new Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act, 2022 (DPWRA), Bill 88 amends the...more
On March 28, 2022, British Columbia introduced Bill 19 - 2022, Employment Standards Amendment Act, 2022 (Bill 19) for first reading. Bill 19 addresses issues raised after the province’s Employment Standards Act (ESA) was...more
In Shalagin v. Mercer Celgar Limited Partnership, 2022 BCSC 112 (Mercer), the Supreme Court of British Columbia dismissed an employee’s wrongful dismissal claim and held that his surreptitious recording of conversations with...more
On the heels of the passage of the Working for Workers Act, 2021, Ontario introduced Bill 88, Working for Workers Act, 2022 (Bill 88) on February 28, 2022, and carried it at First Reading....more
3/3/2022
/ Canada ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Standards Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
International Labor Laws ,
Labor Reform ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Ontario ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Wage and Hour
On February 18, 2022, Ontario’s Your guide to the Employment Standards Act (Guide) was updated to include two new chapters that provide guidance on recent amendments to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) that first...more
On November 30, 2021, Ontario announced that it had passed Bill 27, Working for Workers Act, 2021 (Act). The Act received Royal Assent on December 2, 2021, and came into force on that day. Bill 27 requires employers to...more
12/6/2021
/ Canada ,
Employment Standards Act ,
Foreign Nationals ,
International Labor Laws ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Off-Duty Employees ,
Pending Legislation ,
Popular ,
Recruitment Policies ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Temporary Employees
Eligible Workers in British Columbia Entitled to Five Days of Paid Sick Leave Beginning January 1, 2022 -
On November 24, 2021, British Columbia announced that beginning January 1, 2022, workers covered by the province’s...more
Provincial minimum wage rates were increased to their current rates on October 1, 2021. Just one month later, on November 2, 2021, Ontario announced that because the cost of living has increased considerably due to the...more
11/11/2021
/ Canada ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Standards Act ,
International Labor Laws ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Regulations ,
Minimum Wage ,
New Regulations ,
Ontario ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
On October 25, 2021, Ontario announced the introduction of Bill 27, Working for Workers Act, 2021 (Act) for First Reading. If passed, the Act would amend Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) and other statutes in...more
In Russell v. The Brick Warehouse LP, 2021 ONSC 4822 (The Brick Warehouse), on a motion for summary judgment in a wrongful dismissal action, the court awarded $25,000 in moral/aggravated damages because the employer breached...more
7/22/2021
/ Breach of Duty ,
Canada ,
Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Standards Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
International Labor Laws ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Notice Requirements ,
Without Prejudice Privilege ,
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
Just six weeks after holding in Coutinho v. Ocular Health Centre Ltd. that Ontario Regulation 228/20 (IDEL Regulation) under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) did not remove an employee’s common law right to claim...more
6/16/2021
/ Canada ,
Common Law Claims ,
Constructive Discharge ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Standards Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Infectious Diseases ,
International Labor Laws ,
Layoffs ,
Ontario
Last May, the government of Ontario filed Ontario Regulation 228/20 (IDEL Regulation) under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA). The Regulation provides that an employee in a non-unionized workplace who, any time during...more
5/4/2021
/ Canada ,
Common Law Claims ,
Constructive Discharge ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Standards Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Infectious Diseases ,
International Labor Laws ,
Layoffs ,
Ontario
The Ontario Court of Appeal’s (OCA) recent decision in Abbasbayli v. Fiera Foods Company, 2021 ONCA 95 (Fiera Foods) reminds corporate directors that: (a) an employee may be able to make a claim against them in a wrongful...more
As we entered a new decade in 2020, Canada saw significant developments in labour and employment law, some of which related to COVID-19. This Insight provides an overview of 14 key 2020 developments, with links to more...more
1/8/2021
/ Canada ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Standards Act ,
False Light ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Infectious Diseases ,
International Labor Laws ,
Invasion of Privacy ,
Layoffs ,
Leave of Absence ,
Relief Measures ,
Tort ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Subsidies Schemes ,
Wrongful Death
In Rutledge v. Canaan Construction Inc., 2020 ONSC 4246, Ontario’s Superior Court held, rather surprisingly, that a termination provision in an employment contract that has even a remote possibility of violating the...more
The Ontario Superior Court recently issued a decision in Sewell v. Provincial Fruit Co. Limited, 2020 ONSC 4406 (Sewell), applying the reasoning set forth in the Ontario Court of Appeal (OCA) decision, Waksdale v. Swegon...more
10/7/2020
/ Canada ,
Contract Terms ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Standards Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
International Labor Laws ,
Just Cause ,
Ontario ,
Termination Clauses
Because the COVID-19 pandemic has made travel impossible or risky to one’s health, employers may face employee requests to delay vacation time. In this Insight, we help employers in Ontario understand their rights and...more
Employers with employees in Ontario often ask about legislative requirements under various employment statutes, including mandatory policies, training and postings under the Employment Standards Act, 2000, the Workplace...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
Cormier v. 1772887 Ontario Limited (St. Joseph Communications) (“St. Joseph”), 2019 ONCA 965, is an appeal from a summary judgment motion arising from the wrongful dismissal claim of a contractor who worked for St. Joseph for...more
2/26/2020
/ Appeals ,
Canada ,
Contract Terms ,
Employee Definition ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Standards Act ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
International Labor Laws ,
Notice Requirements ,
Ontario ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Summary Judgment ,
Termination Clauses ,
Wrongful Termination
In Teamsters Local Union 847 v Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, 2019 CanLII 95328 (ON LA), a part-time restaurant employee in Ontario, Canada with two years’ seniority was discharged from her employment because her...more
1/28/2020
/ Absenteeism ,
Arbitration ,
Attendance ,
Canada ,
Collective Agreements ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Employment Standards Act ,
Filing Grievances ,
Food Service Workers ,
Labor Regulations ,
Ontario ,
Part-Time Employees ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Teamsters ,
Termination ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
In a recent appeal to the Divisional Court of Ontario’s Superior Court in Shete, Lada, and Chung v. Bombardier Inc., 2019 ONSC 4083, the court applied the most basic principle that serves as the foundation of common law...more
12/20/2019
/ Canada ,
Common Law Claims ,
Contract Terms ,
Dispute Resolution ,
Employment Standards Act ,
Legal Fees ,
Ontario ,
Reimbursements ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Settlement Negotiations ,
Statement of Claim ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wrongful Termination
Ontario: Amendments to Employment Standards Act and Labour Relations Act -
New Legislation Enacted -
Bill 66, Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, 2018, received Royal Assent on April 3, 2019, and amended the...more
7/23/2019
/ Canada ,
Domestic Violence ,
Employment Standards Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
International Labor Laws ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Pay Gap ,
Sexual Harassment