One of the most discussed recent employment law decisions of the last year has to be Galea v. Wal-Mart Canada Corp., 2017 ONSC 245. Since its release on December 7, 2017, the decision has become the benchmark in employment law as what employer conduct will attract punitive damages. Wal-Mart Canada was ordered to pay the…
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In a recent case from British Columbia, Manak v. Workers’ Compensation Board of British Columbia (cob WorkSafe BC), 2018 BCSC 182, the court held that an employee’s repeated breaches of a confidentiality policy justified the employer to terminate her employment for cause. In employment law, for cause terminations are exceedingly difficult to prove with the…
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In McLeod v. Frontier Sales, 2018 ONSC 1866, the Divisional Court of Ontario dismissed the appeal by an employer who provided working notice to an employee on disability leave and in turn, sought to reduce the amount of reasonable notice that it was required to provide. The case confirms that working notice provided during a…
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In a recent case out of Ontario, Chambers v. Global Traffic Technologies Canada Inc., 2018 ONSC 2000, the court maintained that bonuses earned by an employee prior to termination or during the reasonable notice period are, in fact, payable to the employee despite their being terminated from his/her employment. Additionally, the court awarded nine months’…
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Case Details Late last year, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Hagholm v. Coreio Inc., 2017 ONSC 7713, made a decision that addressed the issue of an employer’s unilateral amendment of an existing employment contract and whether such amendments can result in the constructive dismissal of a long-term employee. The plaintiff, in this case,…
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A unilateral, material and significant change to the employment relationship can lead to a claim of constructive dismissal. Constructive dismissal happens when an employee resigns from their position because the employer has, without warning, materially altered the employment relationship or created such a hostile work environment that it is impossible for the employee to…
Read MoreBusinesses employing contractors to perform specific tasks within their operations is not new. What is new though, is the increasingly large role that independent contractors are playing in a modern, service-based economy. These days, it is not uncommon for companies to employ contractors in a number of areas which would have previously been viewed as…
Read MoreIn previous postings, we discussed the employment contract which exists between all employees and their employers. Implied in most verbal employment contracts is a term recognizing that employees who see their employment terminated for grounds other than "just cause", are entitled to reasonable notice of their termination, or payment in lieu thereof. But what is…
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