Reading Time: 5 minutes 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 […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes 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 […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Introduction The Christmas and New Year holiday season is a good time to reflect generally on work and legally enforced rest. This article is about the law of holidays, the legislated observance, and payment of holidays by employers across the country for the benefit of their workers. There is substantial overlap of holidays in Canada. […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes Introduction Several decades ago, in my first summer job during university, I washed dishes and performed other unskilled labours in the kitchen of a large government seniors’ nursing home in rural Alberta. While the work itself was not particularly memorable, I observed in that workplace of 15 men, the manager obviously decided to discriminate against […]

Reading Time: 3 minutes Introduction  Employers usually promise job seekers that they are looking for the most qualified workers.  It is in their interests to do so.  But occasionally they do not wish to hire the most qualified applicants. What if a slow economy produces many clearly over-qualified applicants and the employer is suspicious that they will not be […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Introduction  While medical scientists are busy deciding the human health impacts of regular recreational cannabis use, and governments are still working out how cannabis will be cultivated, sold and taxed, and law enforcement officials consider how cannabis use will affect driving and how road safety will be maintained, it now falls to every employer in […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes Introduction  Canada is a large country with several levels of government and different law-making authorities.  Constitutionally, Canada is a federal country, which means it is organized under two levels of government: national and provincial.  It is also jointly governed by legislatures and courts.  This article attempts to answer the basic question of who makes the […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Introduction It is said that everyone has their own #MeToo story.  Indeed that is exactly the message #MeToo seeks to communicate.  I start this column with a story that comes to my mind in this context.  This then leads to the main point of this piece: #MeToo makes for captivating human interest stories and an […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Introduction Since harassment is the biggest trending topic related to the workplace, it seems opportune to highlight the harassment provisions in the new Alberta occupational health and safety (“OHS”) legislation, which is known as Bill 30: An Act To Protect The Health And Well-Being Of Working Albertans. Harassment and violence bear some unusual characteristics as […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Introduction We looked through the judicial and arbitral decisions and found ten more random instances of appalling employee behaviour that Canadian courts and arbitrators excused. The first five cases can be found in Part 1 of this article. In these cases, the employer fired the employee, but the court or arbitrator found no legal basis […]