Skana Forest Products Ltd. v. Lazauskas, 2015 BCCA 85

• Judge: Newbury, Lowry and Chiasson, JJ.A.
• Court: Court of Appeal (British Columbia)
• Case Date: February 12, 2015
• Jurisdiction: British Columbia
• Citations: 2015 BCCA 85;(2015), 368 B.C.A.C. 122 (CA)

Skana Forest Products v. Lazauskas (2015), 368 B.C.A.C. 122 (CA);

    633 W.A.C. 122

MLB headnote and full text

Temp. Cite: [2015] B.C.A.C. TBEd. MR.008

Skana Forest Products Ltd. (appellant/plaintiff) v. Alan Lazauskas (respondent/defendant)

(CA041864; 2015 BCCA 85)

Indexed As: Skana Forest Products Ltd. v. Lazauskas

British Columbia Court of Appeal

Newbury, Lowry and Chiasson, JJ.A.

February 26, 2015.

Summary:

The question in this case was whether an employer's sales commission policy for the remuneration of some of its employees, engaged in the purchase, manufacturing, and sale of lumber products, was prohibited under employment standards legislation because both profits earned on some sales and losses sustained on others were taken into account in determining the commission to be paid.

The British Columbia Supreme Court, in a decision reported [2014] B.C.T.C. Uned. 759, held that the commission policy was prohibited by s. 21(2) of the Employment Standards Act, which provided that an employer could not require an employee to pay any of the employer's business costs. The employer appealed.

The British Columbia Court of Appeal allowed the appeal. The employer's commission policy did not require the employees to pay its business costs and was therefore not prohibited by the Act. The court stated that the Act did not prohibit an employee's sharing in his employer's business risk; it prohibited an employee being required to pay his employer's business costs.

Master and Servant - Topic 8308

Employment and labour standards - General - Deductions from pay - See paragraphs 1 to 21.

Statutes Noticed:

Employment Standards Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 113, sect. 21(2) [para. 7].

Counsel:

S.R. Ross and S.L. Lovera, for the appellant;

S.G. Schwartz, for the respondent.

This appeal was heard in Vancouver, B.C., on February 12, 2015, before Newbury, Lowry and Chiasson, JJ.A., of the British Columbia Court of Appeal. The following decision was delivered for the court, by Lowry, J.A., on February 26, 2015.