Articles

On 19 November 2020, Bill C-9, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy and Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy) received Royal Assent. Bill C-9 revises the eligibility criteria and the level of subsidisation that employers can access under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), and extends the overall program to 30 June 2021.

Bottom Line On judicial review, the Divisional Court of Ontario upheld an arbitrator’s decision allowing an employer’s search of a grievor’s personal email account, which had been accessed using an employer-issued laptop.  This recent decision helpfully illustrates for employers that there are limits to a worker’s reasonable expectations of privacy when using employer-issued technology. Background […]

The deadline for businesses and non-profit organizations with 20 or more employees to file an accessibility compliance report under Ontario’s AODA has been extended to 30 June 2021. At this time, the extension does not apply to public sector organizations, which are still required to submit an accessibility compliance report by 31 December 2020

Bottom Line In cases involving sexual activity between two co-workers, it can be difficult to determine whether a participant is truly consenting or merely acquiescing to the relationship. As the #MeToo movement has revealed, the line between consent and acquiescence becomes even more blurred when there is a significant power imbalance between the participants to […]

In Rutledge v Canaan Construction Inc., the Ontario Superior Court of Justice determined that even if an employee is exempt from certain minimum standards under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”) a termination clause may be deemed void if there is even the possibility that it may violate the ESA in the future. This recent decision joins a growing body of case law from the Ontario courts which makes clear that even hypothetical deviations from the required statutory minimums are likely to be fatal to a contractual termination provision’s enforceability and will expose an employer to liability for common law reasonable notice.

Bill 195, Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020 (“Bill 195”) was proclaimed into force on July 24, 2020; the same day on which the provincial declaration of emergency established under O. Reg. 50/20 came to an end.

Under Bill 195, the Ontario Government is able to amend, extend, or revoke orders made under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (“EMCPA”), even though the provincial declaration of emergency has expired.

The Government has exercised its authority under Bill 195 to extend various orders, including those relating to labour redeployment in long-term care and retirement homes, stages of reopening, compliance with public health advice, and public gatherings.  A full listing of the orders that remain in force can be found on the Government’s website.

In Manthadi v ASCO Manufacturing, the Ontario Court of Appeal clarified how a sale of business affects the assessment of common law reasonable notice when an employee is dismissed by a successor employer. In particular, the Court confirmed that in the context of an asset transaction, an employee’s length of service with the predecessor and successor employers should not simply be added together for the purposes of calculating reasonable notice. Rather, the Court reiterated its earlier pronouncement that an employee’s service with a predecessor employer should be captured in the Bardal analysis by assigning appropriate weight to the employee’s experience from which the successor employer benefited.

On 24 June 2020, the Federal Government published the final version of the Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations under the Canada Labour Code (the “Regulations”) to assist in the prevention of harassment and violence in the workplace in federally regulated workplaces prescribed under Part II of the Canada Labour Code. These Regulations will come into force on 1 January 2021, providing federally regulated employers with 6 months to implement changes to their policies. This version of the Regulations contains some significant changes to the earlier version of the draft Regulations circulated for comment on 27 April 2019 and summarised here.

These Regulations support Bill C-65, An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code (harassment and violence), the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act and the Budget Implementation Act, 2017 No. 1 (“Bill C-65”) and will replace the violence prevention provisions of the Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, the Maritime Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, and the On Board Trains Occupational Safety and Health Regulations.

In a recent decision, the Court of Appeal for Ontario held that an employer could not rely on a valid and enforceable without-cause termination provision because the employment contract included a separate for-cause termination provision that violated the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”). In coming to its decision, the Court of Appeal considered it irrelevant that the employer […]