In the recent Nelson v. Goodberry Restaurant Group Ltd. dba Buono Osteria and others, 2021 BCHRT 137 case, the BC Human Rights Tribunal (“Tribunal”) considered a complaint by an employee who asked to be addressed by “they/them” pronouns. The employee, Jessie Nelson, was a non-binary person who used they/them pronouns. Jessie worked at a ...
The BC Supreme Court recently confirmed the test for family status discrimination in the case of Gibraltar Mines Ltd. v Harvey, 2022 BCSC 385. Ms. Harvey and her husband were employed by Gibraltar Mines Ltd. near Williams Lake. They worked the same 12‐hour shifts. After she gave birth to her first child, Ms. Harvey and her ...
In a March 17 arbitration award, yet another Ontario arbitrator found a mandatory vaccination policy to be reasonable. In Unifor Local 973 and Coca-Cola Canada Bolling Limited the arbitrator reviewed the significant impact that COVID-19 had had on the workplace including the death of two employees and 13% of employees testing positive for COVID-19 in ...
A recent BC Supreme Court decision demonstrates that an employment contract does not necessarily need to be signed by the employee in order to be enforceable as long as there is clear evidence that the employee agreed to the terms in the contract. Facts In Asgari Sereshk v. Peter Kiewit Sons ULC, 2021 BCSC 2570, ...
A recent decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal provides clarification on when the common employer doctrine will make a corporation liable for amounts owing to an individual employed by a related corporation. The plaintiff, Mr. Reilly served as CEO for both ClearMRI Solutions Ltd. (“ClearMRI Canada”) and ClearMRI Solutions, Inc. (“ClearMRI US”). Mr. Reilly’s ...
In Moffatt v Prospera Credit Union, 2021 BCSC 2463, Ms. Moffatt commenced an action against her former employer, Prospera Credit Union (“Prospera”) for wrongful dismissal. She had been terminated without cause. Prior to her termination, Ms. Moffat had been employed as a Financial Services Associate under different contractual arrangements. She had worked casual, part time, and ...
In Shalagin v Mercer Celgar Limited Partnership, 2022 BCSC 112 the court considered an allegation of cause that arose after termination. Specifically, the terminated employee was a Certified Professional Accountant employed by the defendant for 10 years. The employee was terminated on a without cause basis and provided payment based on the Employment Standards ...
I previously posted on the blog about the new vaccine mandate for all regulated healthcare workers in private practice in BC. You can read that February 10th post here. The details of the new PHO order had not yet been announced at the time of my February 10th post, but the PHO announcement suggested ...
In Ontario, you cannot have a non-competition clause with employees except in very narrow circumstances. On February 2, 2022, we posted about one part of the Working for Workers Act (“Act”) that came into force in Ontario in December 2021. The Act requires employers to create a policy about the employee’s right to disconnect. You ...
A recent decision from the Manitoba Court of Appeal confirms that a just cause dismissal may be defensible in certain cases even if the employer has not completed a thorough investigation or given the employee an opportunity to respond to allegations of misconduct. In McCallum v. Saputo, 2021 MBCA 62, Mr. McCallum was an employee of ...
