What should have been a straightforward wage case took a turn to the bizarre when the Employment Standards Officer misplaced the complaint. She then told the employer the case was closed. But when the employee re-filed, the case was re-opened and the employer was ordered …

An arbitrator upheld the firing of a teacher for cause because of incompetence. The court said the arbitrator decided the wrong issue, citing a note from the school telling the teacher she was fired for poor performance. The school appealed and the appeals court reinstated …

With car sales way down, a GM dealer had to demote its long time shop manager to a technician position with a cut in salary from $78,000 to $60,000. After 2 weeks in the new position, the manager left. The court awarded him 14 months’ …

Employees that accepted their company’s offer to cash out their benefits under their current defined benefit pension plan and roll the money into a newly formed defined contribution plan claimed that they got a raw deal. Since they later signed a release with the company …

After a 40-year run, an IBM executive was terminated without cause and took a job as a junior insurance salesman. IBM acknowledged that the dismissal was wrongful but asked the court to cut damages because the executive didn’t try hard enough to find a higher-paying …

While out on interim release for a fraud conviction, a 43-year-old employee embezzled $52,000 from 2 different employers. The court upheld a 4 year jail sentence for a crime that carried a maximum 10-year penalty. The crimes were premeditated, a continuation of a long pattern …

When drafting a written agreement like an employment contract, getting the language exactly right is critical. Imprecise words, missing commas and other mistakes in the drafting can result in significant liability—especially in a document like a pension plan. So the idea that an employer …

The guts of the new Ontario workplace violence law—once known as Bill 168—is a regurgitation of the requirements that have long applied in the OHS laws of other jurisdictions, Canada, including Fed, AB, BC, MB, NL, NS, PE and SK. But there are 2 things …

Here’s a Model Policy on Workplace Violence. It’s based on the sample published in new guidelines published by the Ministry of Labour in Ontario but we’ve made a number of changes to improve it and make it applicable to jurisdictions outside Ontario.
A. Company Commitment: The …

If something is bad, multiplying it by a couple of hundred is bound to make it that much worse. That, in a nutshell, is why overtime class actions are such a big concern. One saving grace for employers is that employees face formidable legal obstacles …

SITUATION
A hotel needs a bartender for its lobby bar who’s at least 18-years-old (the legal minimum age for serving alcohol). The bar is open from 5:00 pm to 12:00 am, Tuesday through Saturday, and the bartender must stay another hour after closing to clean up. …

A government agency recognized and tried to accommodate an employee with bi-polar disorder. But when the employee’s behaviour became unacceptably disruptive, the agency ordered him to take medical leave. The Human Rights Commission ruled that the agency had acted reasonably and didn’t commit disability discrimination. …

An engineer hired to run an ethanol project got an email from his boss: Nice job, you’re getting a $7,000 bonus and we expect big things from you next year. But the engineer resigned before he got his money. He claimed he was still entitled …

Speaker: Pamela Ferrante, CSP, CHMM, president of JC Safety & Environmental, Inc. Get practical planning steps your company should take to deal with swine flu or any other contagious disease… how to build a workable plan that your company can use to deal with business …