As a result of the much blogged about changes made to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (the “ESA”), which came into force in the new year, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour drafted a new poster entitled “Employment Standards in Ontario” (the “Poster”) reflecting these changes. What this Means for Employers All employers must replace their old …
Employment Standards
It offends the Employment Standards Act Section 5 of the Employment Standards Act (“ESA”) prohibits employers from waiving or contracting out of any of the employment standards prescribed in the ESA, except to provide a greater benefit to the employee. Any such contracting out is void. Typically, the area of concern in an employment contract …
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 …
Last week, a potential client called and told me they hadn’t been paid in several months. They were employed by a small start-up that couldn’t now afford to pay its employees. The employer was still operating, and wasn’t bankrupt… yet. I told the caller to call the Ministry of Labour, not an employment lawyer. I …