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Canadian Labour & Employment Law Blog
Supervisors Jailed for Convictions Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act
May 2, 2014
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A sentence of imprisonment for convictions under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (“OHSA”) is rare. However, two recent cases may signal that the Courts are becoming more comfortable imposing jail terms. The maximum length that can be imposed under...
BC Court of Appeal Gives Green Light to Untraditional Restrictive Covenant
April 29, 2014
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As many employers know, restrictive covenants are notoriously difficult to enforce because they must be “reasonable” in relation to their subject matter, temporal and geographic scope, as well as unambiguous in their meaning. Every year, restrictive covenants in employment contracts...
New Canada Labour Code Changes
April 22, 2014
Author: Kara Bashutski On April 1, 2014, Bill C-45, also known as the Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, came into effect, amending parts of the Canada Labour Code (the “Code”). The Code applies to all federally regulated employers, such as...
Co-operative Federalism Reinforced: Workers’ Compensation Rules Clarified
April 8, 2014
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Parliament said that it desired a flexible approach to workers’ compensation for federal employees across Canada when it passed the Government Employees Compensation Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. G-5 (“GECA”). The Supreme Court of Canada upheld that model of flexibility for...
Alberta Arbitrators Strike Oil Company’s Random Alcohol and Drug Testing Policy
March 28, 2014
Employers looking to Alberta for a legal precedent to support their random alcohol and drug testing policies will need to keep looking, after Alberta arbitrators deemed Suncor Energy Inc.’s random testing policy to be an unreasonable exercise of Suncor’s management...
Broader Public Sector Accountability Measures En Route
March 7, 2014
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The Government of Ontario announced on March 6, 2014 that it will be introducing legislation to strengthen accountability and increasing transparency. Some of these measures had previously been raised by the Government in the late fall of 2013. Although the...
Pension Benefits Not Deductible From Wrongful Dismissal Damages
February 24, 2014
Author: Richard Truman On December 13, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada released its much anticipated decision in IBM Canada Limited v. Waterman 2013 SCC 70. The case confirms that employers may not deduct earned pension benefits from damages owed...
Alberta Court Freezes Union Legislation
February 19, 2014
The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench granted an injunction to prevent an Alberta law from coming into force until a Constitutional challenge to the law is decided. The Alberta Public Service Salary Restraint Act (“PSSRA”), which imposes wage rate terms...
An Eye on Collective Bargaining and the Taxpayer, Part III: An Update
February 5, 2014
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When we last reviewed fiscal pressures on governments to look for sources of cost-containment and restraint, the pressures were many. In looking for fiscal relief, some governments were turning to restraining compensation in the broader public sector. At the provincial...
Minimum Wage in Ontario to Rise to $11.00/hr
January 30, 2014
Author: Alex Heaslip On January 30, 2014, Ontario’s provincial government announced that it would increase the minimum wage in the province from $10.25 to $11.00 per hour. The change becomes effective on June 1, 2014. The increase of 75 cents per hour was announced by...
Disclaimer
This blog sets out a variety of materials relating to the law to be used for educational and non-commercial purposes only; the author(s) of this blog do not intend the blog to be a source of legal advice. Please retain and seek the advice of a lawyer and use your own good judgement before choosing to act on any information included in the blog. If you choose to rely on the materials, you do so entirely at your own risk.
