An employment law blog.
Sean Bawden, Partner, Kelly Santini LLP.
sbawden@kellysantini.com | 613.238.6321
Friday 6 April 2012
Is Two Weeks Too Little?
Wednesday 4 April 2012
Blue Pencils Cannot be Used to Remove Date from Non-Competition Agreement
(c) istock/Tzido
“Blue-pencil severance” is an extraordinary remedy, by which a court will strike out certain words of a contract in order to give effect to the true meaning (if not the actual wording) of a contract. The concept is most familiar to employment lawyers from the Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in KRG Insurance Brokers (Western) Inc. v. Shafron, 2009 SCC 6.
In Veolia ES Industrial Services Inc. v. Brulé, 2012 ONCA 173, the Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled that it was not appropriate to employ blue-pencil severance to remove the start date from a non-competition contract.
Tuesday 3 April 2012
Man or Muppet? Employee or Contractor?
Sunday 1 April 2012
Taking the Managing out of a Problematic Manager
Frustration of Contract need not be Frustrating
Many employees who become chronically ill, are injured in a workplace accident, or get hurt in some other type of accident and are unable to return to work for medical reasons often believe that they have no option but to quit their job. By the same token, it is not uncommon for employers to take the position with their employees that the employee must either return to work or quit.
However, as this post will demonstrate the forced options of “return to work or quit” are, in fact, a false dichotomy. Employees have other options and employers have further responsibilities.