In Canada, every non-unionized employee has a contractual relationship with their employer. What does that contract look like? Employment contracts may be written or oral, or both. When you sign and return a letter offering you a job, the terms of the letter are the written elements of the contract. That letter usually “incorporates by […]
How Earnings Must Be Paid
August 30, 2019 By Peter Bowal
Introduction In 1981, when I was a student working for the summer in London, England, every two weeks I would walk over to another building and join a queue to collect my pay packet. In the little cardboard pouch, I found a very narrow strip of paper of numbers that explained how my earnings and […]
Bad Behaviour 4.0: Employees getting away with . . .
If an employee has been guilty of serious misconduct, habitual neglect of duty, incompetence, or conduct incompatible with his duties, or prejudicial to the employer’s business, or if he has been guilty of willful disobedience to the employer’s orders in a matter of substance, the law recognizes the employer’s right summarily to dismiss the delinquent […]
The Duty of Unions to Fairly Represent Their Members
May 3, 2019 By Peter Bowal
Introduction: plight of the unionized worker The average unionized worker is in a weak position at work. In many workplaces he will, as a condition of employment, be required to join the existing union. Or he may have been out-voted in the decision to unionize. Bringing serious concerns and directly accessing the employer is hampered […]
What is ‘Self-Dealing’ in Employment?
Introduction While they have human bosses, most employees work for corporations, which are legal fictions with no physical existence. That renders employers technically vulnerable to their own employees who might want to take advantage of them. It is both impossible and undesirable to scrutinize every employee during every minute on the job. There are many […]
