Employers generally owe their employees common law reasonable notice upon termination without cause. However, if the parties agree to a probationary period in an employment contract, the right to common law reasonable notice can be ousted if the employee is terminated within the probationary period. A recent Ontario Court of Appeal case, Nagribianko v. Select …

Introduction The Ontario Court of Appeal, in Brake v. PJ-M2R Restaurant Inc., 2017 ONCA 402 (CanLII), recently clarified the law of mitigation. The duty to mitigate is an employment law principle that requires employees who are terminated without reasonable notice (i.e. a wrongful dismissal) to look for a new job. If a new job is …

The laying of a criminal charge alone does not constitute just cause (i.e. dismissal without notice) in every instance. In order to summarily dismiss an employee for being charged with a criminal offense, the employer must show that there is some connection between the charge and the employer. In this regard, the employer must show …

A case from 2006 (Canadian Union Of Public Employees, Local 27 V. Greater Essex County District School Board (Postma) (Hunter, Arb.)) demonstrates that video evidence will be admissible when it is deemed “relevant”. The Facts: A custodian employed by the Greater Essex County District School Board, Keith Postma, was dismissed for allegedly engaging in activities …

With news almost every week of another marijuana dispensary raided by the police, Ontarian’s have asked, can the Ministry of Labour enforce employment standards (i.e. notice of termination, overtime, etc.) in favour of individuals who work at these criminal enterprises? In short, yes. There is simply no exemption in the Employment Standards Act (“ESA”) which exempts …

Employees are entitled to reasonable notice upon termination of their employment. However, a termination clause contained in an employment contract may oust the employer’s obligation to provide reasonable notice, so long as the termination clause actually limits the employee’s entitlement to notice, without violating employment standards. A recent Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench case, Nutting …

Can Ministry of Labour Inspectors or Officers (i.e. lay-people) offer opinion evidence? Brief Answer: Yes (probably). Introduction: In R. v. Graat, the Supreme Court of Canada, for the first time, permitted an exception to the long-standing rule that lay-witnesses were excluded from providing opinion evidence. In that case, a police officer was able to opine …

If a party, like a former employer, suggests to another to fire a certain employee, the party who tattled on the employee could be liable for damages by way of the “tort of inducing breach of contract.” The tort of inducing breach of contract, as held in Drouillard v. Cogeco Cable Inc., 2007 ONCA 322 …

In an Occupational Health and Act (“OHSA”) prosecution, the best defense is “due diligence”. In that regard, courts have held that discipline can be an element of due diligence. However, whether the discipline was reasonable enough to avoid the offense turns on whether it was “proportionate” and “effective” under the circumstances. This blog post discusses those two concerns: (A) …

Construction employees are not entitled to termination or severance pay under the Employment Standards Act (the “Act”). Section 1 of Ontario Regulation 288/01 of the Act explicitly exempts them from such minimum employment standards. However, a long term construction employee may still be entitled to common law reasonable notice, which is much more lucrative than what …