References present a double-edged sword for employers. On one hand, employers typically want former employees to find new jobs as doing so will get them off the company’s severance payroll. On the other hand, providing references may expose employers to dual-pronged liability in negligence and/or defamation. Given the recent news that Canada lost nearly 46,000…
On the heels of June’s Irving Pulp and Paper decision from the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), which severely limited the circumstances when random drug and alcohol testing is permissible in the workplace, an Ontario arbitrator recently held that mandatory pre-access alcohol and drug testing was an unreasonable exercise of management rights, violated the privacy…
It’s a well-documented fact that recent immigrants face high rates of both underemployment and unemployment. Statistics Canada reported that between 1991 and 2006, the proportion of immigrants with a university degree in jobs with low educational requirements has increased, and that the requirement for Canadian experience is the most common barrier faced by newcomers looking…
In Peel Law Association v. Pieters, the Ontario Court of Appeal affirmed that the test for finding prima facie discrimination under the Ontario Human Rights Code does not require that the discrimination was intentional. The Court set aside a decision of the Divisional Court and reinstated a decision of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, which…
A recent case out of Quebec discusses the level of procedural fairness that may be owed during a workplace investigation for a public institution. In Ditomene c. Boulanger, two employees at a CEGEP (a public school) filed a complaint of psychological harassment under Quebec law against their superior, Mr. Ditomene. The CEGEP retained Ms. Boulanger…