Terminating a unionized employee for substance abuse in the workplace is tricky, considering the duty to accommodate and the traditional mitigating factors arbitrators will consider when determining whether termination is an appropriate response (length of employment, discipline record, remorse, etc). A recent arbitration decision might bring some comfort to employers. In Vale (Manitoba Operations) v….
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…
The Ontario legislature added “gender identity” and “gender expression” as prohibited grounds of discrimination to the Human Rights Code (the “Code”) in the summer of 2012. The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (“HRTO”) had previously recognized discrimination against transgendered-people to be prohibited on the basis of “sex”, thus theCode amendments were seen by many to be largely symbolic…