The desire to use personal mobile devices to undertake work has risen like the incoming tide. Employers must make a choice: turn the tide on the use of personal devices by re-enforcing an outright ban or chart a thoughtful path to higher “Bring Your Own Device” or “BYOD” ground. Employers that do neither will sink…
Publication Type: Article
Ontario Court Provides Useful Guidance to Employers on Supervision and Training Obligations
The Ontario Court of Justice recently overturned a trial decision which convicted an employer of various infractions under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, finding that numerous errors of law had been made. Of interest for employers is the Court’s conclusion an employer is not obligated to provide training to a worker regarding a specific…
Preparing for Canada’s New Anti-Spam Legislation
Canada’s new anti-spam legislation is coming soon. Commonly referred to as “CASL”, the new legislation will impose strict obligations that apply to a range of business emails and other electronic communications that you might not consider to be “spam”. All businesses, even those without formal email marketing programs, should assess their potential exposure to CASL…
Worker Receiving WSIB Benefits Cannot Claim Monetary Relief under Collective Agreement
A recent arbitration decision considered the historic trade-off made through the enactment of workers’ compensation legislation in Ontario almost 100 years ago, when, in general terms, a worker was barred from suing his or her employer for a workplace accident or occupational disease, in exchange for which the worker would receive benefits from the (now)…
Supreme Court of Canada to Hear Appeal in Mounted Police Association Case
The Supreme Court of Canada will be providing further clarification on the freedom of association guarantee in the Charter and the scope of collective bargaining. The Court has recently granted leave to appeal in Mounted Police Association of Ontario v. Canada, where the Court of Appeal for Ontario found that a separate labour relations scheme…
Health and Safety Case May Clarify Employer Obligations
The Alberta Court of Appeal recently granted leave to appeal in a case which will be of interest to employers generally, to clarify the scope of their health and safety obligations, and more particularly to employers who host events at which they rent equipment for use by guests. An Alberta employer had rented a calf-roping…
Majority of Divisional Court Overturns Expulsion of Student at Private School
What happens when a private school student smokes marijuana in his residence on the night before his final day in his final year of high school? This issue arose in a recent case before the Divisional Court, where the school allowed the student to withdraw (without his private school diploma and without permission to attend…
When is a Pension Assignment not an Assignment?
Pension plan administrators are often required to interpret the wording of court orders and separation agreements to determine whether there is a valid and effective assignment of an interest to a member’s former spouse. Until now, the courts have not provided clear guidance on what language is needed in order to create an assignment. On…
The Federal Contractors Program: What Employers Need to Know
While human rights legislation in all Canadian jurisdictions prohibits discriminatory hiring practices, only the federal government has legislation, the Employment Equity Act, which requires employers to engage in a review of their employment and hiring practices to ensure the diversity of their workforces. The Employment Equity Act, however, only applies to that subset of employers…
An Aging Workforce and Hiring Practices
In a time where the workforce is aging, employers must ensure that their recruitment and interview processes involve objective criteria for assessing a job candidate’s qualifications, and do not discriminate against a candidate on the basis of age, either directly or indirectly. The jurisprudence of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario is clear that age…