n Allen v Ainsworth Lumber Co Ltd, 2013 BCCA 271, the British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld a lower court decision which held that an employer’s refusal to allow an employee to work during a purported “working notice” period constituted constructive dismissal.
The Prince Edward Island Labour Relations Board (“Board”) recently heard an Application for Review of a Certification Order in H-Line Enterprises v. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1432, 2014 CanLII 36807. H-Line Enterprises (“Employer”) brought forth the application for review after the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1432 (“Union”) was certified as the bargaining agent for all of its employees under s. 54, Part II of the Labour Act, R.S.P.E.I. 1988, Cap. L-1 (“Act”) which deals with Construction Industry Labour Relations.
The Supreme Court of Canada’s recently-issued decision in R. v. Spencer addressed the narrow question of whether the identification by police of pornographic files on a specific person’s computer, following disclosure by his Internet Service Provider (ISP) of the information associated with his IP address, especially his name and address, amounted to a warrantless search.
In Re Tenaris Algoma Tubes Inc. and USWA, Local 9548 (D.), 2014 CarswellOnt 8009 the employer terminated an employee for offensive comments made on social media and directed at a female co-worker. The Union grieved the employer’s decision to terminate the employee.
In Perez-Moreno v Kulczycki, 2013 OHRTD No 1080, Perez-Moreno, filed an application under the Ontario Human Rights Code (the “Code”) against that his co-worker, alleging harassment in the workplace on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, citizenship and ethnic origin. Interestingly, Perez-Moreno did not also name his employer, the Cranberry Golf Resort located in Collingwood Ontario, in the action.
A recent judgment of the New Brunswick Court of Appeal has once again affirmed the importance of carefully drafting termination clauses in employment contracts. In this case, the Court upheld a trial judgment that a termination clause which purported to limit the employee’s notice entitlement to 20 days was not enforceable.
Many of the cases I have reviewed in recent years on the question of whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee have inevitably determined that the worker is an employee. While there are some notable exceptions to this trend, I find myself surprised whenever I read a decision that concludes that the worker is in fact an independent contractor. Therrien v Minister of National Revenue, 2013 TCC 116 is one such case.
The Ontario Court of Appeal recently released a decision (Farwell v. Citair, Inc, 2014 CarswellOnt 2573, 2014 ONCA 177) making it clear that if an employee rejects continued employment, and proceeds to assert a constructive dismissal claim, an employer must again offer the employee work to invoke the employee’s duty to mitigate with respect to that offer.
In Ostrow v. Abacus Management Corp. Mergers and Acquisitions, 2014 BCSC 938 (May 29, 2014), the British Columbia Court Supreme Court assessed the appropriate notice period for a nine-month employee.
Often constructive dismissal cases involving a change in duties arise from an employer’s unilateral reduction in an employee’s duties. However, Damaso v. PSI Peripheral Solutions Inc., 2013 ONSC 6923 is just the opposite. An employee alleged that an employer’s unilateral increase in his duties resulted in his constructive dismissal.