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Workplace Investigations – Part 2
By Donovan Plomp In an earlier post, we discussed when employers may wish to conduct workplace investigations. In this post we’ll discuss who should conduct the investigation. Being lawyers, we...
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“Workplace Investigations – Part 3”
By Donovan Plomp In earlier posts, here and here, we discussed some legal issues that arise in workplace investigations. In this post, we will discuss some of the privacy issues that can arise. The...
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Restrictive Covenants Unenforceable
Lessons in Drafting from Ontario Court of AppealBy Earl Phillips The Ontario Court of Appeal has made some interesting findings that should be considered when looking at your non-competition and...
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Annual Client Conference
Conference Materials Available OnlineBy Earl Phillips Thanks to over 230 clients who attended our annual full day client conference on Friday March 8. The materials for all the presentations and...
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Terminating Employees on Disability
Truly Shark Infested WatersBy Earl Phillips The media is full of the story of a couple from Wales who were fired from their jobs after the husband helped save children from a shark attack. It seems...
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Mandatory Retirement for Firefighters
Is it valid?By Christopher McHardy The BC Human Rights Tribunal has decided to hear a complaint from an on-call firefighter in Chilliwack about his forced retirement at age 60 (news reports claim Mr....
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More Punitive Damages
By Paige Morrow Another BC employer has been hit with punitive damages. There have been cases where flawed investigations have led to punitive damages (see the Vernon case in BC, and Home Hardware in...
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Not Constructive Dismissal
Removal of Supervisory Duties AllowedBy Paige Morrow A BC employer has successfully defended a claim for constructive dismissal despite taking away supervisory duties and moving the employee from an...
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Breach of Confidentiality May be Cause
Credit Union's Clear Policy HelpfulBy Donovan Plomp If an employee views a confidential file contrary to clear and reasonable policy, she can be fired for cause. That was the judgment of the BC...
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Duty to Mitigate is Alive and Well
Plaintiff should have pursued job opportunityBy Earl Phillips There was a job opportunity for the terminated employee. He didn’t pursue it and he didn’t provide a reasonable excuse. His claim for...
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No Double Recovery by Employee
Employment Standards Damages Deducted from Wrongful Dismissal DamagesBy Donovan Plomp A British Columbia employer has won a case to avoid double recovery of Employment Standards and wrongful dismissal...
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Best of the Blogs
Items of Interest for BC EmployersBy Earl Phillips Our firm now publishes 10 different blogs, and they often have items of interest for BC employers. Here is a sampling of recent posts: Customer...
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Pension Benefits Not Deductible from Wrongful Dismissal Damages
Not like By Earl Phillips The Supreme Court of Canada has decided that pension benefits received by a dismissed employee are not to be deducted from an award of wrongful dismissal damages. The...
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Damages for Injury to Dignity Significantly Increased by B.C. Human Rights...
Case signals Tribunal’s willingness to increase this kind of damages award in the future.By Ryley Mennie In Kelly v. University of British Columbia (No. 4), 2013 BCHRT 302, the B.C. Human Rights...
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Age and Performance Management
By Donovan Plomp If you are going to lay off older workers while hiring younger ones in the same category, you better have a good explanation. That’s essentially what the BC Human Rights Tribunal said...
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No Just Cause for Termination
Problems with clarity, training, consistency and investigationBy Ryley Mennie A recent decision of the BC Supreme Court went in favour of an employee who was terminated by her employer for alleged...
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From the Desk of the HR Manager: Spring Cleaning – Performing an HR Audit
By Ryley Mennie Our colleagues in Ontario recently posted a very useful outline of an HR audit that will help BC employers ensure they stay up-to-date and on top of the wide variety of...
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What Do Your Policies Say About Termination?
… and does it matter?By Donovan Plomp Many employers have policies about termination, and specifically about what an employee is entitled to if terminated without cause. It is a good idea to try to...
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SCC Decision Regarding Wal-Mart In Québec A Cautionary Case For All Canadian...
By Christopher McHardy Our colleagues in Québec have produced a helpful summary of the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision involving a Wal-Mart in Jonquière, Québec, found to have breached its...
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Workplace Drug Dealing Provides After-Acquired Cause for Termination
Employer had just cause based on evidence discovered after terminationBy Rosalie Cress and Will Skinner and Rosalie Cress and Will Skinner In most cases, employees who commit misconduct will face the...
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