How Not to Terminate an Employee
As illustrated in the recent British Columbia Supreme Court decision Chu v China Southern Airlines Company Limited, 2023 BCSC 21, efforts to unfairly deprive employees of their severance can be more expensive than the severance itself. In this case, the employer’s conduct both before and after termination resulted in an award of aggravated and punitive […]
Addressing ‘Quiet Firing’ in The Workplace
The newly emerged concept of quiet quitting has gone viral on social media. For the purpose of this blog, ‘quiet quitting’ occurs when an employee stops being engaged in the workplace and taking initiative in their work, fulfilling only the bare minimum requirements of their assigned tasks. Essentially, the employee disconnects emotionally from their job. […]
Lessons Learned from Lisa LaFlamme Termination
The recent and abrupt termination of News Anchor Lisa LaFlamme from CTV News has garnered significant media attention, largely for the manner in which her termination was handled. Shortly after CTV News issued a media release stating that a business decision had been made to terminate her employment, LaFlamme unexpectedly shared her own Twitter video […]
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 […]