In a decision released earlier this week, the Court of Appeal for Ontario reduced an award of punitive damages against a Wal-Mart manager from $150,000 to $10,000, and against Wal-Mart itself from $1,000,000 to $100,000. In the same decision, however, the court upheld the award of $100,000 in damages for intentional infliction of mental suffering against the manager, and the award of $200,000 in aggravated damages against Wal-Mart.
In a decision released today, the Supreme Court of Canada has held that British Columbia’s Human Rights Code, RSBC 1996, c. 210 does not apply to equity partners in law firms.
Being July 1st, 2014, every employer in the province of Ontario will need to comply with the Ministry of Labour’s new Occupational Health and Safety Awareness and Training Regulation (O. Reg. 297/13) under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA).
As first mentioned by fellow Kelly Santini LLP employment lawyer Shawn O’Connor on the firm’s business law blog Start Up. Build Up. Sell Up. in the post All Employers Required to Train Staff Under New Health & Safety Act, this new legislation may catch many employers off-guard. Past training requirements under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) have resulted in employers focusing on employees involved in physical work and the resulting risk of injury. The new legislation states that all employees must receive the minimum required training, including white collar and clerical staff, whom employers might not have associated with having a risk of injury in the workplace.
On May 2, 2014, the Federal Court of Appeal confirmed that employers have a legal obligation to accommodate their employees' “childcare obligations” as a component of their duty to accommodate an employee’s “family status.”
In its decisions in the parallel cases of Canada (Attorney General) v. Johnstone, 2014 FCA 110 (CanLII) and Canadian National Railway v. Denise Seeley and Canadian Human Rights Commission the Federal Court of Appeal confirmed that the definition of “family status” in the Canadian Human Rights Act includes “parental obligations.”
To what extent can employers rely on internal policies, not incorporated into an employment agreement, for determining employee rights and benefits? According to one decision from the British Columbia Supreme Court, very little.
