A worker informs her employer that she’s been diagnosed with cancer and plans to work up to the day before her surgery. She assumes she’ll have a job to return to, but the employer says that she resigned. Was she wrongfully terminated?

51-year old leasing agent, Elsa Torrejon had worked with Weston Property Management Corp. of Toronto for six months before discovering a lump in her breast in the fall of 2008. After undergoing testing and mentioning the situation to her employer, the cancer was confirmed a few months later in February 2009. It was at this point that Torrejon informed her employers of her plan to work up to the day before her scheduled surgery. She assumed that her job was secure.

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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 more »

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 more »

British Columbia (Public Service Agency) v. British Columbia Government and Service Employee’s Union – British Columbia Court of Appeal – September 18, 2008

An employer is permitted to terminate a disabled employee provided the employee’s disability played no part in the employer’s decision to terminate. read more »

Honda Canada Inc. v. Keays – Supreme Court of Canada – June 27, 2008

Little more then four months after the Supreme Court of Canada heard the appeal of Honda Canada Inc. v. Keays, the court’s decision was released. The court had the opportunity to alter the practice of both employment law and the common law in general. read more »