News & Events

In a decision released May 15, 2021, Arbitrator Derek Rogers upheld grievances concerning an employer’s implementation of a phone application entitled “Exak Time.”  Grievances were filed by both IUOE Local 793 and LIUNA 183. Both unions challenged the employer’s implementation of the app, which required clocking in and clocking out via mobile phone. The ExakTime

Randy Bauslaugh’s “Climate Change: Legal Implications for Canadian Pension Plan Fiduciaries and Policy-Makers”,[1] a legal opinion written at the request of the Canada Climate Law Initiative, is the latest contribution to the discussion of whether pension plan administrators should be factoring climate change into their decision-making on investments. Bauslaugh concludes that the current scientific consensus

The Pay Equity Act, S.C. 2018, c. 27, s. 416 (“Pay Equity Act” or the “Act“), was passed by Parliament and received Royal Assent on December 13, 2018. It will come into force on August 31, 2021. It will apply to federally regulated public and private sector employers with an average of 10 or more

In recent years, and in particular over the course of the last 18 months or so, courts have varied and/or clarified their position on a number of key employment law issues. In Hawkes v. Max Aicher (North America) Limited, 2021 ONSC 4290, the employee successfully brought an application for judicial review of a decision of

Ontario’s Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission Releases its Final Report The current COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact within the province of Ontario. The residents and staff of long-term care homes have been among those most affected by COVID-19.  By the end of April 2021, the pandemic had caused the deaths of approximately 4000 residents

The COVID-19 Period has been further extended in Ontario and is now slated to end on September 25, 2021 Infectious Disease Emergency Leave (IDEL) is extended to September 25, 2021 After Infectious Disease Emergency Leave ends, employees who were placed out of active service as a result of the pandemic are no longer on that

For good reason, many employers are beginning to think about how their workplace will look a few months from now.  They are considering how to assure employee safety and are wondering what impact the vaccination roll-out will have on masking and social distancing requirements over the summer and by early fall of 2021. In short,

In a seminal decision released on March 18, 2021, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has issued a finding supporting a claim of gender-based discrimination in relation to the unconscientious perception of the applicant as a woman and the gender bias which was inherent in her male-centred workplace (Cybulsky v. Hamilton Health Sciences, [2021] O.H.R.T.D.

Pension and benefit plan administrators and trustees process a substantial amount of personal information about individuals in order to provide benefits to employees, retirees, pensioners and surviving spouses. Privacy legislation, such as Personal Information Protection and Electronic Document Act (PIPEDA), imposes a legal framework around how the personal information collection by pension and benefit plan

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) recently dismissed a complaint which alleged that it was discriminatory for a grocery store to refuse to allow a customer to enter without wearing a mask. In a decision dated March 31, 2021, The Customer v. The Store, 2021 BCHRT 39 (CanLII) the Tribunal dismissed the complaint