Employer Liable for Misrepresenting Position

I tend in this blog to focus on recent case law, a trend I do not intend to stop. However, from time to time, it is interesting to focus on the classics, the foundations of Canadian employment law.

One of the key cases in this area is Queen v. Cognos Inc., 1993 CanLII 146 (SCC), [1993] 1 SCR 87; a case often thought of as establishing the test for the tort of negligent misrepresentation. And, while it is true that Cognos is the leading case on that point, Cognos was also an employment case and the facts underlying it are unfortunately more common than they should be.

Employee Fired by Mistake had Duty to Return

“Baby come back, you can blame it all on me. I was wrong, and I just can't live without you.” Player in their 1977 hit “Baby come back.”

“In all seriousness however, what if an employer was fired by mistake? Could that employee still sue for wrongful dismissal?

Incredibly, that was the question that the Honourable Justice Richard Lococo was called upon to answer in the case of Chevalier v. Active Tire & Auto Centre Inc., 2012 ONSC 4309 (CanLII).

Fired After Maternity Leave

An Ontario employer cannot fire an employee while she is on maternity leave simply because she is on maternity leave. Ontario law protects the employee’s position while she is away. But, what happens when an employee who has been on maternity leave returns and is then terminated?

Names Will Get You Fired

Is calling your boss negligent and dishonest just cause for dismissal? It depends on who you ask it would appear.

In a decision released August 17^th, 2012, Bennett v. Cunningham, 2012 ONCA 540, the Court of Appeal for Ontario reversed the decision of the Ontario Divisional Court, which had itself reversed the decision of an Ontario Superior Court judge.

Being Reasonable about Constructive Dismissal

Should I stay or should I go? Without question, the single most difficult case that walks through my door is that of harassment or bullying by managers. This post will focus on general hostile working environments. Working environments that are toxic by reason of violations of the Human Rights Code are treated differently.

The fact scenario most commonly presented is that of the employee who simply cannot take any more from his or her manager and/or subordinates. Pulled in a hundred different directions, often with no support from above, the worker’s well-being starts to suffer.

What is an employee, faced with this situation of unbearable stress, to do?

Failing to Prevent Subordinate's Stupidity Not Just Cause for Dismissal

Some facts are simply too fantastic to make up. Is a manager’s failure to specifically prohibit an employee from using a forklift to raise a wheelchair-bound co-worker to a mezzanine just cause for the manager’s termination from employment?

As incredible as those facts may seem, that was the issue that the Honourable Justice Peter Lauwers of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice was asked to resolve in the case of Barton v. Rona Ontario Inc., 2012 ONSC 3809 (CanLII).

Costs of Hiring an Employment Lawyer

How much is hiring a wrongful dismissal lawyer going to cost me? When someone finds him or herself suddenly unemployed questions about the costs of services get serious. Legal services have long had a reputation of being expensive, and there may be a further perception that their cost may put them out of reach to some people. I wish to dispel that myth.