Labour Market
July 7: Jobs-wise, the recession has hit Canada harder than other industrialized countries. According to a new OECD report, long-term unemployment, i.e., the proportion of jobless who’ve been unemployed for at least 12 months, stood at 8% last year. That’s way above the average …

A roundup of important new legislation, regulations, government announcements, court cases and arbitration rulings

Case of the Month

BC Ruling Sheds Light on Whether Wages Are Federally or Provincially Regulated
The freedom of each province to adopt its own employment standards laws is a beautiful …

How to Create an Enforceable Testing Policy
Mandatory testing is one of the best ways to keep employees from using drugs and alcohol in the workplace. But in addition to union opposition, testing raises thorny issues under privacy and civil rights laws. Courts, arbitrators and labour …

Download your July newsletter and find out whether or not monitoring you employee’s email and computer use is a privacy violation? Do you know what kind of employment references to give to make sure you are protected from liability, even if you had to fire the employee with just cause?

Find Out How the New Scotiabank Ruling Opens the Door to Class Action Lawsuits for Overtime and Other Wage Claims Against Many Ontario Organizations — and What You Can Do to Minimize Risk and Liability.

A retired plan member sued his employer for “surreptitiously and unilaterally” changing the plan from defined benefit to defined contribution and asked the court to make the employer “wind up,” i.e., terminate the new plan. No dice, said the court. Under the pension laws, the …

A 57-year-old machine operator claimed he was laid off due to age and disability—he was on short-term disability after knee replacement surgery. The company contended that the layoff was purely the result of the economic downturn and lack of work. The court agreed. The company …

A company agreed to use a more generous formula to calculate overtime for a new category of flexible part-time employees. Employees demanded that their hours be prorated as soon as they became part of the new category. The Grievance Board said the employer didn’t have …

Out of work and low on funds, an individual transferred $11,000 in pension credits to a Locked-In Retirement Account (LIRA) and used the funds to pay his expenses. But, alas, he was still unable to avoid bankruptcy. The individual claimed the money in the LIRA …

A teacher divorced his wife in 2004. She stayed in the couple’s home with the 3 kids. Later, she got remarried and assumed ownership of the home. He also remarried and asked the court to terminate the ex-wife’s spousal support, remove her from his employer-provided …

The union representing maintenance workers grieved against a paper company for contracting out manufacture of signs to an outside contractor. The arbitrator upheld the grievance based on an argument that the union made during the rebuttal stage of the hearing. The company claimed it was …

A homeowner was so unhappy with what he considered reckless driving by the Town’s snow removal service that he sent Town officials notes accusing the operator of using and selling illegal drugs. The operator sued for defamation and the court ruled in his favour but …

A pastry chef lured to Canada from France signed a contract guaranteeing him 40 hours of work per week for 18 months. But the employer didn’t like the way the chef was following recipes and just a few months into the deal, he was out …

A biotech company sued an employee to recover $22,800 of the $437,000 it advanced him for medicinal supplies that were never bought. The employee claimed he had given a company representative an envelope containing $32,500. But he couldn’t produce a receipt and the company said …