Can you be fired from your job before you even begin it? As preposterous as that question may sound, that was the very question with which the Supreme Court of British Columbia found itself faced in the case of Buchanan v Introjunction Ltd., 2017 BCSC 1002 (CanLII).
Few things in law are certain. Even fewer things in life are certain. In fact, it is said that only two things in life are certain: death and taxes. Allow me to submit that there is one more thing in life of which you can be certain: your mother is, was, and will be correct.
Among the myriad things about which your mother was correct is the fact that if you were too sick to go to school, then you were too sick to go out and play once your friends got home from school.
I raise this tautology, actually a repetition of an argument that I made in paper that I authored in 2010 titled Sick of Work? The Legal Minefield of Workplace Burnout, in respect of the case of McLeod v. 1274458 Ontario Inc., 2017 ONSC 4073, which held that working notice was inappropriate for an employee absent from work on medical leave.
In an asset-sale transaction, if the purchaser offers to employ an employee of the vendor, can the purchaser vary some (or all) of the fundamental terms of the employee’s employment contract and rely on the offer itself as sufficient legal consideration for such changes?
In the case of Krishnamoorthy v. Olympus Canada Inc., 2017 ONCA 873, Ontario’s top court ruled that it can.
Does an employer’s undertaking to “comply with its obligations under the employment standards legislation” displace the common law presumption of termination only upon the provision of reasonable notice?
In a decision released October 20, 2017, Nogueira v Second Cup, 2017 ONSC 6315 (CanLII), the Honourable Justice Edward M. Morgan of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that it did not.
Such decision is yet another in the long series of decisions to consider what it takes to contract out of such entitlement and, for the reasons that follow, it leaves this employment lawyer saying: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Everyone knows that in the classic children's game, Rock, Paper, Scissors, scissors beat paper. But can scissors beat statutes?
To the point, can a trial judge use a severability clause to excise the offending portion of a termination provision, keeping the remainder of such provision enforceable? While that question might seem highly academic, it is one of critical importance to anyone employed pursuant to the terms of a written employment contract.
In North v. Metaswitch Networks Corporation, 2017 ONCA 790 (CanLII), the Court of Appeal for Ontario finally laid to rest both this issue and its earlier decision in the much-maligned case of Oudin v. Centre Francophone de Toronto, Inc., 2016 ONCA 514.
(c) istock/DenTv
Can you sue someone in Ontario civil court exclusively for discrimination under the Ontario Human Rights Code? Definitely not, according to a decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sitting at Ottawa involving Gene Simmons and a KISS concert: Lee v Simmons et al., 2017 ONSC 4980.
(c) istock/MartinFredy
What is the penalty if a company fails or refuses to file a Record of Employment on time?
While cases involving government sanction for failing to properly file an ROE appear to be few, in the civil case of Ellis v Artsmarketing Services Inc., 2017 CanLII 51563 (ON SCSM), an Ontario Small Claims Court Deputy Judge awarded money damages for such inconvenience.
