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.
On June 27, 2014, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 503 v. Wal‑Mart Canada Corp., 2014 SCC 45 after a decade-long litigation battle between the parties. Ultimately, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of a Quebec arbitrator who determined that the closure of the Wal-Mart location was contrary to s. 59 of the Quebec Labour Code (the statutory freeze provision).
The recent (and brief) decision of the Registrar of Trade-marks in Provide Gifts, Inc. V. MJB Marketing Inc. 2014 TMOB 15 should serve as a reminder to businesses of the potential power of expungement proceedings, and why the existence of a registration won’t always bar another’s use and registration of a similar mark in a similar field.
The New Brunswick Workers Compensation Act provides no fault compensation to employees who suffer injury or disease arising from their employment. However, the legislation restricts employees from claiming benefits related to mental stress. An employee can only receive workers’ compensation benefits if the stress is the result of “an acute reaction to a traumatic event” that arises out of and in the course of employment.
The British Columbia Court of Appeal addressed a permissive non-competition clause in an employment contract in its recent decision of Rhebergen v. Creston Veterinary Clinic Ltd., 2014 BCCA 97 (March 12, 2014). The clause required a payment of money to the employer if the employee chose to compete.