Employer Faces Harsh Consequences for Falsely Alleging Cause
Employer Faces Harsh Consequences for Falsely Alleging Cause Courts have increasingly demonstrated a willingness to penalize employers for asserting just cause without basis. In Humphrey v. Mene, 2021 ONSC 2539, the Ontario Superior Court went a step further, and found that even though an employer had abandoned its just cause allegations, it could no longer […]
Risky Business: Importance of Consistent Messaging in Terminating Employees
Important of Consistent Messaging in Terminating Employees A recently released decision by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal serves as a reminder to employers to stand by their decision when asserting just cause. In Abrams v. RTO Asset Management, 2020 NBCA 57 (Abrams), a 55 year old employee with approximately thirty years of service was terminated […]
Ontario Court of Appeal: Exceptional Notice Awards will ONLY be Awarded in Cases with Exceptional Circumstances (Dawe Update)
The Ontario Court of Appeal recently provided some much-needed clarity into whether the Courts will impose a “cap” on the wrongful dismissal notice awards. As we wrote about in our April 2019 article, Exceptional Notice Awards Will Be Awarded In Cases With Exceptional Circumstances, in Dawe v The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada, the […]
Ontario Superior Court: Exceptional Notice Awards Will Be Awarded in Cases with Exceptional Circumstances
It is time to say goodbye to the 24-month upper limit on common law notice periods. The writing has been on the wall since 2015, as we have seen notice awards slowly creeping up from this high-water mark, with the courts providing notice awards of 26 and 27 months in a number of recent cases.[1][2][3] […]
Top 10 Employment Law Cases and Developments of 2018
1. Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act (“Bill 148”) Came into Effect 2018 started off with a bang as the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act (“Bill 148”) came into effect on January 1, 2018. Bill 148 resulted in the most significant amendments to Ontario’s employment legislation, the Employment Standards Act (the “ESA”), that the province had seen […]
The Courts Have Spoken: Termination Clauses MUST be “Compliant” “Clear” and “Unambiguous”
In the past month, the Ontario Superior Court and Ontario Court of Appeal have released two decisions that have continued the recent trend of overturning termination agreements in favour of the employee. Recent Case Law If you recall, earlier this year we wrote a blog about a significant case, Wood v. Fred Deeley Imports Ltd., […]
Did the Employee Quit? When a Resignation is actually a Termination.
Consider you have a disgruntled employee working for you and you suspect he wants to quit. However, you are also prepared to terminate him. One day, the employee verbally mentions to you that they might just get up and leave, so you tell them to go ahead. Three weeks later, a lawyer’s letter lands on […]
When Online Trolls Cost You Your Job: Did Nintendo Fail to Protect its Employee?
There has been a lot of buzz recently about Nintendo’s decision to terminate its employee Alison Rapp. Rapp was a product manager for Nintendo who held spokesperson status and regularly represented the company on social media. Recently, Rapp was targeted by online trolls and harassed with respect to Nintendo’s decision to tone down its sexualization […]
What You Do Outside of Work Could Cost You Your Job!
In our current digital age there is an increasing blur between personal and work life. As a result of the internet and social media, an employee’s off-duty behaviour is increasingly visible to their employer and the general public. Content can be shared with the world in a matter of seconds on social media and there […]
Everything but those Two Little Words: The Truth Behind Constructive Dismissal
On his hit television show The Apprentice, business mogul Donald Trump turned the words “you’re fired” into a novelty catch phrase. In reality though, these are likely the two most difficult words any employee could hear. Work is one of the most important relationships in people’s lives, and the end of that relationship can be […]