While new legislation and regulations draw most of the attention, case law generates many if not most of the significant new developments in HR and employment law each year. Such was the case in 2022. Major issues in HR litigation during the year included workplace harassment, probationary employment, constructive dismissal, drugs and alcohol testing and, of course, mandatory vaccination and other COVID issues. Here are what we at HR Insider believe to be the 11 most significant cases of 2022, along with a practical lesson you can take from the case to address the HR issue the particular case involved at your own workplace.

While workplace harassment is a perennial focus of HR litigation, 2022 raised a novel issue with massive liability consequences for employers: Whether multiple harassment victims from the same workplace can combine their claims into a class action lawsuit.

In March, a flight attendant sought to blaze another path around the workers comp bar by contending that employers who fail to protect their employees from harassment are vicariously liable for money damages under tort law.

$50,000 is one of the highest general damage awards ever handed out by the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Not surprisingly, it was for harassment. The victim was an OHS officer who got fired after accusing the owner of the company of sex harassment.

COVID-19 was a major theme in 2022 HR litigation, with mandatory vaccination the focal point. Continuing the trend that began last November, courts and arbitrators across the country. consistently rejected union challenges to mandatory vaccination policies.

In September, a BC court handed down Canada’s first ruling on what has become a crucial COVID-related HR issue: Whether placing employees on unpaid leave for refusing to get vaccinated is constructively dismissal.

Another challenge that COVID poses to HR managers and programs are the health and safety compliance issues. In July, Ontario imposed what may be the nation’s highest OHS fine for failing to protect workers from infection.

As usual, drug and alcohol testing was a major focus of HR litigation in 2022. Two of the most significant cases raised the question of whether a relatively minor incident was enough to justify post-incident testing under an existing test policy.

An important case addressing probationary employment involved a hospital’s decision to terminate a probationary medical technologist occupying a highly sensitive surgical position. While conceding that the hospital didn’t need just cause, the union contended that the decision to terminate was arbitrary.

The human rights law duty to accommodate requires an employer to give a disabled employee a reasonable opportunity to return to work. But just how long does an employer have to wait?