Labour & Employment

Every investigator has had one of “those” files. Allegations are abundant, historical, and/or about things like “he walked past me once without speaking to me.” Can an investigator refuse to look into allegations if they are ancient? What if they wouldn’t constitute harassment even if they c…

When employees experience personal trauma, challenging transitions in the workplace, difficult relationships with managers, etc., some of them will choose to “off-ramp,” a term referring to those who voluntarily resign or reduce their working hours. Many employers will be familiar with an em…

Another year is winding to an end – which, of course, means that it’s time to reflect on the legal developments that we have seen in Ontario during the year. In this blog, I will present my non-exhaustive list of the most interesting developments to employment law in Ontario in 2019. Termina…

Section 26 of Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”) outlines an employer’s compensation obligation towards their employees when a public holiday falls on a regular work day. In order to be entitled to public holiday pay, the employee must pass the “Last and First Rule” – which req…

Workplace investigations are an important process in any workplace. In some cases they are required by legislation and in others they are just good practice. Before conducting your own internal workplace investigation, be sure you have considered all of the points below. 1. Pick an investiga…

As a part of their job-application process, many employers ask applicants a question about the applicant’s ability or eligibility to work in Canada. Depending on the exact wording of that question, it may violate the Human Rights Code (the “Code”). Such a violation could be costly. In 2018, …

An Ontario summary judgment decision released October 3, 2019 has confirmed that an enforceable “without cause” termination clause is not unenforceable on the sole basis that, elsewhere in the employment contract, the “for cause” termination clause violates the Employment Standards Act, 2000…

“Privity of contract” is a common law tradition. The rights and obligations imposed by contracts are private – strangers to the contract generally have no entitlement to enforce such rights or obligations. But what happens when the employee of the seller of a business sues the buyer for wron…

So you have a problem employee that you want to terminate. Your employment lawyer reminds you that you would owe nothing to the employee in a “for cause” termination, but that it’s unlikely that you could prove cause in the circumstances. She then goes on to assess your common law reasonable…