Turnpenney Milne is happy to announce a new team member to the firm, Carolyn Denault! Carolyn is a highly collaborative, compassionate, and strategic advocate. As an associate lawyer at Turnpenney Milne LLP, she practices in all areas of management and employee-side employment law, as well as workplace investigations.  Continue Reading

When Catherine and Rachel founded Turnpenney Milne LLP 13 years ago, they sought to make the legal profession more inclusive for women and build a workplace where all team members thrive. Today, we are proud to say that we now have 15 female professionals at the firm, many of whom are reflected in our leadership....Continue Reading

Jeff Rochwerg and Kimberly Lennon are presenting at a Webinar for St. Lawrence College next Friday, March 10, 2023 at 12pm EST.  All are Welcome to join the webinar, click here to register. Human Resources Future of Work, Redesigning the Employee Experience. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Topics:...Continue Reading

Wan v. Intek Communications Inc., 2022 CanLII 97950 The Facts The Complainant, Mr. Wan, started working for Intek Communications Inc., (“Intek”) as a Cable Technician in May 2007. In 2013 he suffered a workplace injury to his ankle. Unfortunately, in April 2014, the Complainant was involved in another workplace accident and later underwent a Functional...Continue Reading

Esi Codjoe and Shannon Sproule coached the Osgoode Hall Law School winning team at Isaac Moot! Their team won in two categories: Best Moot Team and Best Facta. We were thrilled to support the work of the next generation of lawyers who are interested in advocacy and human rights! Isaac moot has focused on an...Continue Reading

Authors: William Hockin and Cereise Ross Effective January 1, 2023, the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”) no longer applies to individuals who are business consultants or information technology consultants when: they provide services through (i) a corporation of which they are a director or shareholder party to a unanimous shareholder agreement; or (ii) a sole...Continue Reading

Author:  Lindy Herrington In a recent Court of Appeal decision the Court provides guidance on what is considered reasonable steps at mitigation. Lake v. La Presse, 2022 ONCA 742 Facts Ms. Lake worked at La Presse as a General Manager for 5.5 years when she was terminated without cause. She was 52 years old and...Continue Reading

Esi Codjoe will be speaking at Civility for Litigators on Thursday, December 15, 2022 between 1:00pm to 4:00pm. For more information and to register please click on the link: https://advocates.ca/TAS/Events/Showcase_Pages/Civility_for_Litigators.aspx?EventKey=CIVILITY22  Continue Reading

Author: Nofil Nadeem Facts The Plaintiffs were Portfolio Managers of a hedge fund (the “Fund”) under the supervision of Martin Braun, a senior investment professional. The Fund was acquired by the Defendant, JC Clark Ltd. (“JC”). As part of the acquisition, the Plaintiffs were hired by JC as Portfolio Managers. The Portfolio Managers were subject...Continue Reading

Author: Shannon Sproule Wrongful dismissal takeaways from Gracias v. Dr. David Walt Dentistry, 2022 ONSC 2967: How to factor the pandemic’s impact into the assessment of mitigation and damages and insight into the significance of a reference letter. Facts The Plaintiff worked for the Defendant, Walt Dentistry on an occasional basis in 2017, and transitioned...Continue Reading

The Facts In Public Health Sudbury & Districts v Ontario Nurses’ Association, Arbitrator Herman upheld an employee’s entitlement to a creed-based exemption under the employer’s mandatory vaccination policy. Sudbury & District Health Unit, operating as Public Health Sudbury & Districts (“PHSD” or the “Employer”) is a public health agency located in Sudbury, Ontario. In response...Continue Reading

McGraw v. Southgate, 2021 ONSC 7000 The question that this case raises and answers is how can rumours, hearsay, gossip and innuendo be utilized in a workplace investigation. The Facts Melanie McGraw (“McGraw”) was a volunteer Fire Captain firefighter with the Dundalk Fire Department (“DND”), a part-time administrative assistant with the DFD as well as...Continue Reading

McGraw v. Southgate, 2021 ONSC 7000 The question that this case raises and answers is how can rumours, hearsay, gossip and innuendo be utilized in a workplace investigation. The Facts Melanie McGraw (“McGraw”) was a volunteer Fire Captain firefighter with the Dundalk Fire Department (“DND”), a part-time administrative assistant with the DFD as well as...Continue Reading

Turnpenney Milne is pleased to announce that Esi Codjoe has joined the firm’s partnership. Esi Codjoe is a pragmatic and solutions focused practitioner. She provides legal advice to employers and employees, in both non-unionized and unionized workplaces. Esi understands the unique human resources challenges faced by workplace parties in both the private and public sector....Continue Reading

An employee’s level of sophistication and access to independent legal advice has no bearing on the enforceability of a termination clause. Rahman v. Cannon Design Architecture Inc, 2022 ONCA 451 The Ontario Court of Appeal recently found that subjective considerations cannot override the plain wording of a termination clause. The decision reiterated that it is...Continue Reading

A Single Incident of Sexual Harassment can be Cause for Termination Render v. Thyssenkrupp Elevator (Canada) Limited, 2022 ONCA 310 Ontario’s Court of Appeal recently confirmed that a long tenured employee can be terminated for cause following a single incident of sexual harassment. The decision also provides insight into the different standards required to establish...Continue Reading

Turnpenney Milne is excited to announce the arrival of our new team members.Continue Reading

Esi Codjoe will be speaking Wednesday, May 25, 2022 as part of a panel on “Recent Notable Human Rights Decisions and Developments,” at the Annual Update on Human Rights Law by the Ontario Bar Association. The Annual Update on Human Rights Law returns again this year to get you up-to-speed on substantive and procedural trends...Continue Reading

Esi Codjoe will be speaking Wednesday, May 25, 2022 at Session 4: Traits of Successful Adjudicators: Impartiality, Independence and Integrity, part of the Foundations in Adjudicative Tribunal Competencies Certificate Program by the Canadian Bar Association. Administrative adjudicators must be impartial, independent and exhibit integrity in all stages of their decision making. Learn the difficult task...Continue Reading

In recent months, the provincial government introduced several legislative changes with Bill 88, Working for Workers Act, 2022, which creates new rules that govern the workplace, including increased transparency about employers’ electronic monitoring of its employees. Once in effect, Bill 88 will require large employers with 25 or more employees to tell their workers if,...Continue Reading

Esi Codjoe speaks about her biggest career barrier and urges employers to aim for clearer equity policies in this article posted in Canadian Lawyer Magazine. “The practical reality is that legal considerations of a policy are always going to be defined by compliance with human rights legislation.” To read the full article please follow the...Continue Reading

In the Fall of 2021, Bill 27 Ontario Working for Workers Act prohibited the use of non-compete provisions as of October 25, 2021, except in narrow circumstances involving executives or in a sale of business context. However, the Act does not address the effect the prohibition would have on existing non-compete provisions (i.e., those signed...Continue Reading

Now that the Working for Workers Act, 2021 (described in our December 3, 2021 blog post here) has received Royal Assent, the clock is ticking for employers to prepare and implement a policy on Disconnecting from Work.  In this article, we describe the essential elements of a Disconnecting from Work policy.  We also discuss the...Continue Reading

With schools returning to in-class learning, it’s only a matter of time until kids will be sent home for reasons related to COVID-19, once again putting parents in the impossible position of having to juggle childcare with work responsibilities. Those parents have some options to legally take time off work to take care of their...Continue Reading

Esi Codjoe will be speaking tomorrow at Soar’s Zoom Meeting Presentation titled ‘Navigating Online Justice 2.0.’ Soar’s panel of experts address our evolving reality. Questions will be addressed such as: What have we learned? Has human connectivity suffered when we are screen-bound? What tools have been created or improved to assist the players at the...Continue Reading

This is Part 2 of our two-part discussion of notable employment law decisions of 2021. 3. The Post-Waksdale Cases Last year, the Ontario Court of Appeal released the landmark decision of Waksdale v. Swegon North America, 2020 ONCA 391 (“Waksdale”), which held that a “just cause” termination provision in an employment contract that violated the...Continue Reading

As 2021 draws to a close, we reflect on the employment law decisions that were released over the past year. Below is a high-level overview of the key aspects of five notable case law developments in 2021 that all employers and employees should know about. 1. The IDEL Cases In May 2021, the Ontario government...Continue Reading

On November 30, 2021, the Ontario legislature passed the Working for Workers Act, 2021 (the “Act”) which, once Royal Assent is received, will amend the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (the “ESA”) and create new statutory rights for provincially-regulated employees in Ontario. In this blog post, we address the following two changes in detail: (i) the...Continue Reading