The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has awarded Cheryl Khan, an employee for Lynx Trucking Transportation, $25,000.00, as well as $6,750.00 for lost wages, after her former employer, Lynn Tompkins, made racist remarks to her and terminated her employment. When an employer makes such remarks to an employee, the employer may find themselves facing a claim of discrimination, workplace harassment, or, as in this case, Human Rights violations.

Over the course of her employment, the employee, who worked for the employer for two years as a dispatcher in the employer’s trucking company, was referred to by the employer as a “stupid immigrant”, as well as many other degrading and racist comments including “Paki” and referring to her children as “half-nigger babies”. Read the rest of this entry »

A recent photograph taken by a TTC traveler on January 8, 2010 has gone viral on the internet. The photo depicts a TTC employee sleeping on the job inside a ticket both. This photo brings up many employment law issues, including employment termination, wrongful dismissal and termination for cause.

Employees who are on the “front-lines” of an employer’s business are the face of the business and any form of insubordination by these employees, such as sleeping on the job, reflects poorly on the employer’s business as a whole. Such conduct may be grounds for termination for cause since the ramifications of such insubordination may have detrimental effects on the employer’s business. Read the rest of this entry »

Statistics Canada has released numbers demonstrating that approximately 30 million work hours were lost across Canada in November due to seasonal flu and H1N1.

The figures also showed that about 1.5 million Canadian between the ages of 15 and 69, which works out to be about 9% of the work force in that range of years, were absent from their employment due to such illnesses, with an average of 19.6 hours lost per worker. Read the rest of this entry »

Prior information released by Statistics Canada in the last few months of 2009 suggested that the Canadian labour market had found a way to sustain the rate of job cutting by Canadian employers. In November of 2009, the data indicated that Canadian employers created approximately 79,000 new jobs for Canadians. However, the figures for December of 2009 were quite different. Read the rest of this entry »

On December 15, 2009 the Government of Ontario gave Royal Assent to Bill 168, entitled An Act to amend the Occupational Health and Safety Act with respect to violence and harassment in the workplace and other matters. This legislation will come into effect six months after receiving Royal Assent, being June 15, 2010, and will provide protection for both employees and employers in regards to workplace violence and harassment. Read the rest of this entry »

A United States case regarding the privacy of text messages sent by employees from their work cell phones is going before the U.S. Supreme Court. Although this is a U.S. matter, the decision, when made in the summer of 2010, may change how electronic media is used in many Canadian workplaces.

In general, electronic media abuse is a controversial issue shared on both sides of the Canadian/U.S. border and has been the topic of many wrongful dismissal claims. The position of many employers on this issue is that since the electronic devices are only provided for work related matters and are actually owned by the employer, the employer is able to review the use of this equipment and discipline employees for any non-work related and/or inappropriate use. Employees, however, believe that although the equipment is provided by the employer for work related use, an employee does not waive their right to privacy when such equipment is used for personal matters.

More information can be found on the following sites:

The New York Times    Los Angeles Times     CTV NEWS

2010 Canada’s Employment Lawyers Directory is out listing the top employment and immigration lawyers from across the country, organized by region.  Published by Canadian HR Reporter (Carswell) it is a guide for HR professionals and employers looking for leading employment law and immigration law practitioners.  The lawyers were selected according to two criteria.  They were either identified by their peers as the most frequently recommended employment lawyers in the most recent survey by leading legal publication Lexpert, or they were selected in recognition of their contribution to employment law and HR publications.  We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our colleges that have been recognized. Read the rest of this entry »

Shafron v. KRG Insurance Brokers (Western) Inc. – Supreme Court of Canada – January 23, 2009

Ambiguous terms in a restrictive covenant will not be remedied through notional severance and only narrowly through blue-pencil severance.

The recent Supreme Court of Canada decision on January 23, 2009 in Shafron v. KRG Insurance Brokers (Western) Inc. [2009] 1 S.C.R. 157 (“Shafron”) demonstrates the court’s reluctance to alter ambiguous terms in a restrictive covenant. Although the doctrine of severance may be applied in some cases, such amendments will only occur in very limited circumstances.

In Shafron, the employee was employed by the employer as an insurance salesman. Read the rest of this entry »

The Ontario Government has passed an Act amending the current Employment Standards Act, 2000 by adding temporary employees or “assignment employees” to the Act’s jurisdiction, thereby ensuring that these employees receive such benefits as termination and severance pay.

The Ontario Government has passed amendments to the current Employment Standards Act, 2000 entitled An Act to amend the Employment Standards Act, 2000 in relation to temporary help agencies and certain other matters (“Act”). The amendments in the Act provide a number of new provisions affecting the treatment of temporary help agency employees.

These new provisions include: prohibiting a temporary help agency from either restricting a client from hiring an agency’s assignment employee, or restricting an assignment employee from accepting an offer of permanent employment with one of the agency’s clients; prohibiting temporary help agencies from charging a client a “temporary to permanent” fee for continued employment of an assigned employee past six months; prohibiting a temporary help agency from charging an assignment employee for accepting permanent employment with one of the agency’s clients; and prohibiting temporary help agencies from restricting a client from providing an assignment employee with references. Read the rest of this entry »

Hydro-Québec v. Syndicat des employé-e-s de techniques professionnelles et de bureau d’Hydro-Québec, section locale 2000 (SCFP-FTQ) – Supreme Court of Canada – July 17, 2008

The test for undue hardship is not total unfitness for work in the foreseeable future, but rather where a disability excessively hampers the proper operation of the business or where the disability prohibits the employee from returning to work in the reasonably foreseeable future even though the employer has tried to accommodate the employee.

The recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada on July 17, 2008 in Hydro-Québec v. Syndicat des employé-e-s de techniques professionnelles et de bureau d’Hydro-Québec, section locale 2000 (SCFP-FTQ) [2008] S.C.J. No. 44 (“Hydro-Québec”) clarifies the test of undue hardship in an employer’s duty to accommodate a disabled employee. The Court stated that the test for undue hardship is not total unfitness for work in the foreseeable future, but rather where a disability excessively hampers the proper operation of the business or where the disability prohibits the employee from returning to work in the reasonably foreseeable future even though the employer has tried to accommodate the employee. Read the rest of this entry »