Reading Time: 2 minutes As the COVID-19 vaccine begins to roll out across Alberta, employers may be wondering how vaccinations will be managed in the workplace. While this is a new issue that has yet to be tested in the courts or tribunals, there are guiding principles that employers should keep in mind when considering how to implement a […]
COVID-19 | COVID-19 Vaccines the Workplace: Employees
Reading Time: 4 minutes With COVID-19 vaccine roll-outs ramping up, employees may be wondering how to deal with vaccines in the workplace. In a companion article, our firm provides information for employers about COVID-19 vaccines in the workplace. In this article, we address questions employees may have. Can my employer require that I get the COVID-19 vaccine? Yes, but […]
EMPLOYMENT | Bad Behaviour 6.0: Employees getting away with …
Reading Time: 4 minutes An exhibitionist teacher, a foul-languaged childcare worker and a lustful caretaker are three more cases of employees getting away with bad behaviour. In my opinion, the phrase “fuck off” is just a forceful and intense way to say “leave me alone” or “go away”. On September 12, 1996, I find that Mrs. Legere used the […]
EMPLOYMENT | Worker Status Pending Arbitration
Reading Time: 5 minutes Unionized employees terminated for cause from their jobs can – and often do – ask their unions to grieve the termination. A termination for cause means the employer has grounds (cause) to terminate the employee. This is different from a termination without cause. After filing the grievance, an arbitration process tests the grounds (cause) for termination.
EMPLOYMENT | Changes to Alberta Employment Law. Again.
Reading Time: 5 minutes On November 1, 2020, several changes to Alberta’s Employment Standards Code came into effect. Changes include payment of earnings after termination, deductions, averaging arrangements for calculating overtime, rest periods and calculating general holiday pay. These changes are detailed in Bill 32: Restoring Balance in Alberta’s Workplaces Act, 2020. Remember the government’s red-tape inquiry? Bill 32 […]
EMPLOYMENT | Enhanced Job Security for Federal Workers
Reading Time: 3 minutes It is an outcome that is anchored in parliamentary intention, statutory language, arbitral jurisprudence, and labour relations practice. To decide otherwise would fundamentally undermine Parliament’s remedial purpose. – Wilson v Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., 2016 SCC 29 at para 69 Employment security is something every worker is concerned about, especially during a pandemic. It […]
EMPLOYMENT | Bad Behaviour 5.0: Employees getting away with …
Reading Time: 4 minutes Whitford was not given sufficiently clear and detailed warnings about his misconduct, was mislead [sic] by approvals granting him leave, and was not told that failure to prepare a return-to-work plan could result in his dismissal. Further, he was not caught drinking on the job, other than the one occasion when he made no attempt to […]
EMPLOYMENT | COVID-19: Temporary changes to Alberta’s Employment Standards Code
Reading Time: 4 minutes COVID-19 has impacted every aspect of people’s lives in Alberta, across Canada and around the world. Governments have scrambled to approve stimulus packages, update public health orders, and change laws to respond to this new disease. Alberta declared a public health emergency under the Public Health Act on March 17, 2020. Doing so gives the […]
EMPLOYMENT | What to do with Your Conscience at Work?
Reading Time: 5 minutes We hear a lot today about people following their conscience. Conscience is more than mere preferences and choices. It is about one’s values, spiritual worldview and visceral sense of right and wrong. Few employees want to compromise on their deepest conscientious beliefs for their jobs. These beliefs often arise from religious convictions but are technically […]
EMPLOYMENT | Opening the Legal Profession: The Andrews case
Reading Time: 4 minutes While legislatures must inevitably draw distinctions among the governed, such distinctions should not bring about or reinforce the disadvantage of certain groups and individuals by denying them the rights freely accorded to others. – Andrews v Law Society of British Columbia, [1989] 1 SCR 143 Introduction In the recent federal election, a party leader campaigning […]
