Stuart Rudner, an employment lawyer and mediator with Rudner Law in Markham, Ont., said a business can impose discipline on someone for breach of policy or insubordination as long as the policy is reasonable, and “that is where all of these cases or going to succeed or fall apart.”
The public will be forgiven for concluding that virtually every major employer is requiring that all employees be vaccinated or they will lose their job. Yet if you read the details of most of these policies, they are not mandatory at all.
For years, the prevailing wisdom has been that employers should investigate suspicions of misconduct before firing an employee. We certainly advise our clients to. But what happens if you don’t? Can an employer be liable simply for failing to investigate?…
The recent decision in Insurance Corporation of British Columbia v. Moveup (Canadian Office and Professional Employees’ Union Local 378), 2021 CanLII 28564 (BC LA) provides some reassurance for those who feel that summary dismissal would be appropriate.
We know that only a tiny percentage of claims filed make it all the way to trial; I have always understood that it is less than two per cent. So why is it that so many cases settle before trial?
One of the biggest topics of debate these days is whether employees should be entitled to paid time off when they are sick.
Although we have not yet seen a judicial decision on whether a temporary layoff will be a constructive dismissal during a pandemic, we do have one which confirms that reducing an employee’s pay between 16 per cent and 20 per cent is a constructive dismissal.
What is the impact of a global pandemic on notice of dismissal or severance requirements? Does it result in increased notice, decreased payments, or neither?
“Convince me.” When I am your mediator, that is your job. The easier you make it for me to understand your case, the easier it will be for me to put your case forward in the other room. As I…
There is an assumption that in the employment relationship, there is an imbalance of bargaining power and the employee needs additional protection. That is often the case, but not always. So how do we decide when courts should intervene, and when individuals should be held to the bargain that they agreed to be bound by?
