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 […]
Social Media Posts and Employment: A perilous playground
Reading Time: 4 minutes An employee’s social media or Internet activity can have unexpected impacts on their employer. And their job. Social media, and the Internet generally, has become the preferred pastime of our age. Social media may have begun its life as a glorified digital bulletin board. But it has blossomed into a place where individuals loudly advocate […]
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.
Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault in the Workplace: Is this Something New?
Reading Time: 5 minutes There has been a great deal of attention in the media lately about allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment in the workplace. The current “#MeToo Movement” was thought to have started after public accusations of sexual misconduct by former American film producer Harvey Weinstein. The hashtag #MeToo actually developed from the term “Me Too” […]
Constructive Dismissal Still Under Construction
Reading Time: 4 minutes “constructive dismissal can [occur when]… a series of acts that, taken together, show that the employer intended to no longer be bound by the contract.” – Potter v. New Brunswick Legal Aid Services Commission [2015] 1 SCR 500 http://canlii.ca/t/ggkhh Introduction Constructive dismissal was revisited by the Supreme Court of Canada last year in the case […]
Termination for Insolence
Reading Time: 5 minutes We hear that “attitude is everything”, and nowhere is this more important than at work. Consider whether the employee’s attitude below should be enough to justify his firing. Henry, 31, had been working for seven and a half years as an auto body repair technician at the Fox Ford dealership in Woodstock, New Brunswick. He […]
Canadian Unions: From Repression and Resistance to the Right to Strike
Reading Time: 8 minutes The history of Canadian unions is a long and storied one. The Canadian labour movement of the past was a fusion of many disparate groups, often at odds with one another. For many years, the law was inhospitable to unions, with the balance tilted in favour of employers and government. Since the mid-twentieth century, trade […]
Job Candidates Deserve Fair Treatment of Their Applications
Reading Time: 7 minutes I have applied for many jobs in both the private and public sectors in Canada. Some were full-time, most were part-time. Several employers follow a long, drawn-out application process involving several phases: asking for numerous personal and work experience referees;written examinations; telephone calls; and occasionally requiring flights out of province or drives to other cities […]
Reinstatement
Reading Time: 4 minutes Introduction Many Canadians will remember the case of Lynden Dorval, the Edmonton public school teacher, who was fired by his school board for dispensing marks of zero to students who did not do their assignments. Recently the case reached the Alberta Court of Appeal on the question of whether Mr. Dorval should be reinstated to […]
The Law of Leafleting and Picketing
Reading Time: 5 minutes Introduction Distributing leaflets to people and picketing are longstanding forms of employee expression, commonly to protest or draw attention to employment disputes. Primary picketing is attending at a place of business or employment with an object of persuasion, usually to dissuade others from entering or doing business at that place. Secondary picketing is doing the […]
