Littler (JD Supra Canada)

On May 25, 2021, Alberta released its Open for Summer Plan (Opening Plan), which eases COVID-19 restrictions in three stages.  Each stage is reached as COVID-19 vaccination targets are reached and hospitalizations decline.  

On May 25, 2021, British Columbia released a four-step COVID-19 reopening plan, Restart: A plan to bring us back together.  To move through the steps, British Columbia looks for...

Ontario recently enacted Bill 284, COVID-19 Putting Workers First Act, 2021, which amended the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) to require employers to provide employees up to three days’ pay if they miss work for certain reasons relating to COVID-19 (paid Infectious Disease Emergency Leave (IDEL)), retroactive to April 19, 2021, and until September 25, 2021. 

On May 11, 2021, British Columbia (BC) announced that it had introduced Bill 13, Employment Standards Amendment Act (No. 2), 2021 (Bill 13) for first reading. Bill 13 received Royal Assent on May 20, 2021. Bill 13 amends the province’s Employment Standards Act (ESA) to add two new leaves...

On May 20, 2021, Ontario released its long-awaited Roadmap to Reopen (Roadmap), a three-step plan to safely and gradually reopen the province and loosen certain public health restrictions.

Employees in Canada who want to get vaccinated but lack a contractual or statutory right to paid time off to do so may be unable to afford the reduction in income that would ensue if they took time off work to get vaccinated.  Several provinces have removed this deterrent by requiring employers to provide a COVID-19 vaccination leave to employees without loss of pay or other benefits. 

In Perretta v. Rand A Technology Corporation, 2021 ONSC 2111, Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice ordered an employer to pay an employee damages for reasonable notice at common law when it decided the employer repudiated its employment agreement upon failing to comply with one of its termination provisions.

On May 13, 2021, Ontario announced the extension of its Stay-at-Home Order, which was set to expire on May 19, 2021, until at least June 2, 2021. All public health and workplace safety measures under the provincewide emergency brake will remain in effect. 

In Anderson v Total Instant Lawns Ltd, 2021 ONSC 2933 (Total Instant Lawns), an employee claimed her job was terminated and sought damages for wrongful dismissal.  The employer denied the employee was dismissed and argued that she either resigned, repudiated, or abandoned her employment, and counterclaimed for breach of contract.

Last May, the government of Ontario filed Ontario Regulation 228/20 (IDEL Regulation) under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA).  The Regulation provides that an employee in a non-unionized workplace who, any time during the “COVID-19 period” does not perform the duties of their position because their work hours are temporarily reduced or eliminated by their employer for reasons related to...

On April 28, 2021, Ontario announced in a News Release that it will soon introduce legislation that, if passed, would require employers to pay employees up to $200 per day for up to three days if they miss work for reasons relating to COVID-19. 

On April 20, 2021, Peel Public Health (Peel) and the City of Toronto Public Health (Toronto) announced they would be issuing Orders directing business closures in certain circumstances.  These Orders, which have now been issued and are in effect, are considered necessary to stop the spread of COVID-19 variants, protect the healthcare system, and save lives. 

On April 23, 2021, Ontario filed Regulations 313/21, 314/21 and 315/21 under the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020.  The Regulations create new requirements relating to the temporary removal of masks in the workplace to consume food or drink during Stage 1, Stage 2, and Stage 3 of the reopening plan.

In Labrador Recycling Inc. v. Folino, 2021 ONSC 2195 (Labrador Recycling), Ontario’s Superior Court denied an employer’s motion for an urgent injunction to restrain its former employee from competing with it contrary to the employee’s purported fiduciary duty and his contractual obligations set out in the employment agreement’s restrictive covenant. 

On April 19, 2021, Canada released its 2021 budget.  Budget provisions impacting employers include those that extend certain business support programs implemented in response to COVID-19; expand access to Employment Insurance (EI) benefits; amend the Canada Labour Code to improve job protections for gig economy workers, raise the minimum wage to $15/hour, and institute job protections for...

On April 16, 2021, Ontario announced a two-week extension of its third declaration of emergency and its second Stay-at-Home order, and that in response to the rapid increase of COVID-19 case rates and pressure on the health care system, it would impose additional restrictions. 

On April 20, 2021, the Medical Officer of Health in the Peel Public Health Region (Peel) announced that an Order would be issued directing businesses with five or more cases of COVID-19 in the previous 14 days to close for 10 calendar days when such cases...

On November 17, 2020, Canada’s federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry introduced Bill C-11, An Act to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act and the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other Act (Bill C-11) for consideration in the House of Commons.

On April 13, 2021, Ontario announced that in Phase 2 of its COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan it will provide vaccines to those 18 and over via mass immunization clinics, mobile teams, and pop-up clinics in highly impacted neighborhoods.

In Currie v. Nylene Canada Inc., 2021 ONSC 1922, Ontario’s Superior Court held that “exceptional circumstances” existed to justify making an award that exceeded the 24-month “high end” amount of reasonable notice for long-term employees. 

In response to the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases, concerns over hospital intensive care unit capacity, and the increasing risk to the public caused by COVID-19 variants, on April 7, 2021, Ontario announced the declaration of a third provincial emergency and the enactment of a stay-at-home order.

In Sharma v. Toronto (City), 2020 HRTO 949, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) provides a roadmap for how employers should determine whether they are required to accommodate employees and customers who seek exemptions from the City of Toronto’s mask-wearing requirement.

With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rising in Ontario at a concerning pace due to the rapid transmission of new variants, on April 1, 2021, the province filed Ontario Regulation 240/21 under the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020 (Reopening Act), imposing an “emergency brake” across the province. 

In Czerniawski v. Corma Inc., 2021 ONSC 1514, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice concluded that a long-term employee’s misconduct did not justify dismissal for cause without notice. The court awarded 19 months’ common law reasonable notice.

In De Facendis v. Toronto Parking Authority, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice held that when a claim for workplace sexual harassment and workplace sexual assault “arises under the collective agreement,” a labour arbitrator has exclusive jurisdiction to resolve it under s.48(1) of Ontario’s Labour Relations Act, 1995 (OLRA).

In a News Release dated March 17, 2021, Ontario announced it was removing regulatory restrictions to make it easier for organizations to conduct on-site COVID-19 testing in the workplace. Asymptomatic employees can now voluntarily self-swab for a rapid antigen point-of-care test under the supervision of a trained individual.

In Nahum v. Honeycomb Hospitality Inc., 2021 ONSC 1455, the Ontario Superior Court determined that an employee’s pregnancy should impact the calculation of her reasonable notice period for dismissal.  The court awarded the employee five months’ reasonable notice after she had worked for the employer for four and a half months. 

With increasing concerns over COVID-19 variants and the recent acceleration of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout to Ontario’s public, Ontario Premier Doug Ford was recently asked if the Government of Ontario would consider passing legislation that would allow employees to take three hours’ paid time off to get the COVID-19 vaccine. 

The Ontario Court of Appeal’s (OCA) recent decision in Abbasbayli v. Fiera Foods Company, 2021 ONCA 95 (Fiera Foods) reminds corporate directors that: (a) an employee may be able to make a claim against them in a wrongful dismissal action for unpaid wages under s. 131 of the Ontario Business Corporations Act (OBCA), including in circumstances when such a claim is unavailable under s. 81 of the...

Regardless of social media policies establishing expectations for employee conduct online, online harassment is still a prevalent issue in the workplace as well as in society more generally.