Showing posts with label ESA s. 53. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ESA s. 53. Show all posts

Friday 1 January 2016

Court Censures Employer After Refusing to Reinstate Employee Following Maternity Leave and Creating Childcare Chaos

What will be the court’s censure for an employer’s unwillingness to accommodate its employees’ childcare arrangements, except where legitimate, justifiable grounds exist for being unable to do so? According to the Honourable Justice Susan E. Healey of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, no less than $20,000.

In her reasons for decision reported at Partridge v. Botony Dental Corporation, 2015 ONSC 343, affirmed on appeal 2015 ONCA 836, Justice Healey threw the proverbial book at an employer who not only falsely alleged just cause for dismissal, but also engaged in acts of reprisal and violated one of its employee’s human rights after the employee had taken maternity leave.

In another good hard look at the consequences of messing with an employee’s right to return to work following maternity leave, (see also the case of Bray v Canadian College of Massage and Hydrotherapy, 2015 CanLII 3452 (ON SCSM), a decision of the Ontario Small Claims Court, summarized by this blog in the post Ontario Small Claims Court Awards Human Rights and Punitive Damages after New Mom Constructively Dismissed,) Ontario’s judges continue to demonstrate that an employee’s right to take parental leave is pretty much sacrosanct.

Sunday 22 March 2015

Ontario Small Claims Court Awards Human Rights and Punitive Damages after New Mom Constructively Dismissed

There is a saying in law that “bad facts make bad law.” Of course, the opposite is also true; good facts make good law. In a clear demonstration of the latter, the case of Bray v Canadian College of Massage and Hydrotherapy, 2015 CanLII 3452 (ON SCSM) demonstrates what happens when experienced counsel appears before an experienced trial judge with some pretty decent facts.

While Bray looked at a number of issues of importance to Ontario employment law, the four most interesting features are:

  1. The judge’s finding that an indefinite layoff is a constructive dismissal;
  2. The judge’s finding that he had no power to award damages for an act of reprisal following a complaint to the Ontario Ministry of Labour;
  3. The judge’s award of human rights damages in an Ontario Small Claims decision; and
  4. The judge’s award of punitive damages for a breach of the duty of honest performance created by the Supreme Court of Canada in Bhasin v. Hrynew, [2014] S.C.C. 71.