Labour & Employment

Commonly employers use contracts to try to limit an employee’s entitlements upon termination (for any reason) to only those statutory minimums mandated by Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000, rather than the so-called one-month-notice-per-year-of-service rule of thumb often adopted by lawyers and the Court. Judges tend to scrutinize these efforts fairly closely. Over the past year, […]

There have been important developments recently regarding claims arising from alleged workplace harassment, bullying and toxic work environment, as prohibited by Ontario’s Human Rights Code and the law generally.   In a recent decision by Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (the “Tribunal”), the employee commenced a lawsuit against her former employer and claimed

Increasingly businesses (and employers) and public organizations deploy and use ever-improving surveillance technology, including workplace audio and video recording.  Ontario law has remained vigilant and watchful, attempting to balance legitimately held privacy expectations for everyone against unreasonably invasive privacy intrusion, particularly to foster security, safety and legitimate business or public interests.   In an important,

In this recent case, a long-time employee (thirty years) was justifiably terminated, without severance, for an isolated incident of sexual harassment in the workplace. The employee had no prior disciplinary record during his long tenure. The employee had slapped his female co-worker on the buttocks, in the presence of others. The employee did not apologize,

A car dealership employee surreptitiously took videos and photos of female clients of the dealership. He then showed them to co-employees and made inappropriate comments, most of which were sexually charged in nature. He was caught and fired, for cause. He sued. The Court held there was justification for his abrupt termination without any compensation

Despite that many employees do not take their contractual or statutory vacation time each year, increasingly “vacation shaming” pervades our workplaces. Vacation shaming has been defined as, “where co-workers and bosses use peer pressure and guilt trips to discourage employees from taking time off.” It can be insidious, subtle and indirect – often inducing more

I’m loathe to be Grinchy, but here are some tips for your workplace holiday party or event this year: Location and Driving: consider holding the event off-site at a licensed event venue pre-arrange designated drivers; provide taxi chits or a credit system with a local taxi service hire a local transportation service, if not a

It’s that time again – holiday party!!!!!!! With the fun comes the responsibility (and potential liability to employers and co-employees). Benjamin T. Aberant and Shana Wolch, lawyers at McCarthy Tetrault LLP offer this very helpful blog about tips for office holiday parties: “The holiday season is a jolly-busy time to be an employment lawyer. Not

Employees who experience sexual or other harassment or violence in the workplace should not be discouraged from reporting to their employer simply because no one else witnessed the harassment or violence. He said/she said concerns are no reason to avoid making a complaint to ensure the harasser is properly investigated and, if appropriate, punished. Under

Due to a new decision by the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (the “WSIAT”), an employee in Ontario cannot sue his or her employer for constructive dismissal, if the reason the employee was forced to leave his or her employ was due to chronic mental stress, caused by workplace bullying, harassment or other