The Ontario Court of Appeal recently released a decision on how damages ought to be assessed with respect to an employee’s bonus and benefits over the reasonable notice period. The Decision In Singer v. Nordstrong Equipment Limited, 2018 ONCA 364, an employee commenced a wrongful dismissal action against his former employer seeking his lost salary,...Continue Reading

Catherine Milne was interviewed about the process of investigations for an article on the CBC News website entitled “How investigators try to determine truth of harassment claims”. Click here to read her comments.Continue Reading

By Catherine Milne Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal awarded $200,000 on account of an Applicant’s injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect on account of repeated sexual assault and harassment at the hands of her manager, who was also her landlord.  This award represents a high-water mark from the Tribunal for awards of sexual harassment.   In...Continue Reading

On April 8, 2018, Ozlem Yucel spoke at the Job Search and Employment Law workshop organized by the Turkish Community Heritage Centre of Canada. The workshop took place at Toronto Northern District Library at 40 Orchard View Blvd. and also featured Deniz Küçükceylan, CHRP and Seyfi Atasoy as speakers.Continue Reading

By Deborah Hudson A friendly reminder that all businesses and non-profits with 20 or more employees (as well as designated public sector organizations) are required to file an accessibility compliance report no later than December 31, 2017. The compliance report confirms that you have met your current accessibility requirements under the Accessibility for Ontarians with...Continue Reading

By Ozlem Yucel Holiday parties can be a great way to boost employee morale – but, if not handled properly, they can also be a source of liability for employers. Below is an overview of the law surrounding employer liability in such scenarios and a checklist of measures that can be put in place to...Continue Reading

By Krista Siedlak The recently announced changes by the federal government will allow new parents planning to take parental leave on or after December 3, 2017 (outside of Quebec) to extend and spread their benefits over an 18-month period. This currently applies to federal employees, with expected changes coming at the provincial level (http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/parental-leave-announcement-1.4394512). Options...Continue Reading

Krista Siedlak will be presenting a lunchtime webinar entitled “Managing and Accommodating Mental Health Issues in the Workplace,” for the Canadian HR Reporter on November 29, 2017. Click here for more information or to sign up.Continue Reading

By Ozlem Yucel This question is often a source of disagreement between employers and employees. Consequently, many employers have attempted to preempt this issue by drafting bonus plans that specifically restrict payment upon termination. The enforceability of these plans has been the topic of several Court of Appeal cases recently. Interestingly, the Court has come...Continue Reading

by Ozlem Yucel Employees who have been wrongfully dismissed have a duty to mitigate their losses.  This duty requires an employee to make reasonable efforts to look for another job after their termination.  If the employee fails to do so, a court could reduce the compensation they may have otherwise received from their former employer....Continue Reading

By Deborah Hudson The Ontario Court of Appeal recently confirmed that employers can terminate employees during the contractually prescribed probationary period without the provision of common law notice. Mr. Nagribianko, the Plaintiff, commenced an action in Small Claims Court after he was terminated during the six month probationary period as set out in his employment...Continue Reading

By Lindsay Gluck Important amendments relating to chronic stress are made to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA) in Bill 127, which comes into force January 1, 2018 for workplace incidents occurring on or after that date. As of January 1, 2018, s. 13 of the WSIA is amended as follows: 4. Subject to...Continue Reading

By Lindsay Gluck Termination provisions can be a useful tool to limit an employee’s presumptive right to common law severance provided that the termination provision maintains the employee’s rights under the Employment Standards Act (ESA).  If a termination provision has the effect of reducing the employee’s termination entitlements to less than the minimum ESA standards...Continue Reading

Ozlem Yucel has been elected to be Secretary of the Executive of the Ontario Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Section.  Congratulations, Ozlem!Continue Reading

Ozlem Yucel has been elected to be a Member-at-Large on the Executive of the Ontario Bar Association’s Labour and Employment Section.  Congratulations Ozlem!Continue Reading

For the third year in a row, Catherine Milne co-chaired the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Annual Six-Minute Employment Lawyer.  This was the 20th anniversary of this very successful program and included 18 lawyers from across the province presenting to over 400 participants.  In addition to co-chairing the program, Catherine presented the paper on Just...Continue Reading

By Krista Siedlak The use of independent contractors has historically been a very attractive option for companies, and in turn, workers, with an estimated 1.8 million Canadians currently operating as independent contractors. For the individual, it generally means more flexibility, the ability to write off business expenses, and more control over work (and life!). For...Continue Reading

The Ontario Superior Court recently released a decision sending a clear message of disapproval to employers alleging just cause without any reasonable basis to do so. In Morrison v. Ergo-Industrial Seating Systems Inc., 2016 ONSC 6725, an employer was ordered to pay $50,000 in punitive damages for advancing a groundless allegation of cause, withholding payment...Continue Reading

Ozlem Yucel published an article for the Ontario Bar Association. The article, entitled “Exploring Mediation Prior to Litigation in Wrongful Dismissal Cases,” discusses the benefits of exploring mediation prior to litigation, and was published online on March 27, 2017.Continue Reading

All Ontario employers have certain obligations with respect to drafting and implementing a policy and accompanying program on violence and harassment in the workplace, as set out in the Occupational Health and Safety Act.  An employer’s legal obligations were further expanded when the OHSA was amended in the Fall of 2016 via Bill 132; this...Continue Reading

Deborah Hudson was recently published in the Queen’s University IRC Research Briefs writing about Ageism in the Law (April 2017).Continue Reading

Deborah Hudson published an article with the Labour and Employment Law Section of the Ontario Bar Association. The article entitled: “Forging the Way to Just Cause” discusses two recent decisions where employers were found to be justified for just cause terminations, and was published online, on February 6, 2017.Continue Reading

On April 15, 2017, Krista Siedlak will run two separate sessions during this five-day program for the Certificate for HR Law Professionals at Osgoode Professional Development. The sessions will be dealing with Investigations: “Conducting the Interview” and “After a Finding”. The first session deals with the nuts and bolts of conducting effective interviews during investigations. The...Continue Reading

On February 22nd, Krista Siedlak will be speaking at the five-day program for the Certificate in Labour Law at Osgoode Professional Development. Krista will be presenting on “Making a Finding and Preparing an Investigation Report”.Continue Reading

Catherine Milne spoke on a panel with two colleagues at the 2016 Human Resources Professional Association (“HRPA”) HR Law Conference in Toronto.  She and her co-presenters discussed a variety of case law updates including those related to bonus payments at termination, written termination clauses in employment contracts, employees vs. contractors, restrictive covenants, social media in...Continue Reading

For the third year in a row, Krista Siedlak will be presenting at this conference in the Fall of 2016. This year, her topic is pulled from the headlines: “You did What? When Off-Duty Conduct Impacts your Job”.Continue Reading

In June 2016, Krista Siedlak conducted a webinar on conducting harassment investigations at Canadian HR Reporter. This was particularly well attended as employers are trying to get ready for the upcoming changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act in September of 2016 regarding sexual harassment and investigations.Continue Reading

Rachel Turnpenney was interviewed today on CBC’s Metro Morning by Matt Galloway on the subject of “Promotion and Pregnancy”. You can listen to an audio recording of that interview at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/programs/metromorning/promotion-and-pregnancy-1.3619968.Continue Reading