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Employers responsible for protecting their employees from harassment on social media finds an Ontario Labour Arbitrator
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August 2016

Employers responsible for protecting their employees from harassment on social media finds an Ontario Labour Arbitrator

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According to a recent decision by an Ontario labour arbitrator, employers may now be liable for not protecting their employees from harassment on the employer’s social media accounts. In this decision, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) workers’ union filed a grievance regarding the TTC’s social media account created to communicate with the general public, alleging that the account served as a platform to harass TTC employees. The arbitrator granted the union’s grievance, despite the employer’s argument that, in this time of readily-available internet access, it is impossible for an employer to effectively filter all harassing social media posts. The arbitrator…

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Hot temper of an employee may provide just cause for dismissal says a recent Alberta decision

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In the recent Alberta case of Turner v Atco Frontec Corp the court held that an employee’s hot temper culminating in inappropriate and aggressive behavior towards another employee might provide adequate just cause for dismissal. The deterioration of the relationship between the employee and the rest of the team was found to be, in and of itself, an adequate ground of dismissal, independent of any finding of harassment towards other employees. In this case, Mr. Turner alleged wrongful dismissal after he was terminated due to coming into conflict with another member of the employer’s team. The employee had a history…

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Ontario Human Rights Tribunal speaks on what constitutes creed-based belief protected under the Human Rights Code

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The Ontario Human Rights Code protects one from discrimination due to both religious and creed-based beliefs. Unfortunately, the Code does not define “creed” and, while courts have interpreted “creed” in a rather broad manner (link to blog about veganism as creed) to also include sincerely-held non-religious beliefs, this remains an uncertain area of law. The recent case of Barker v. St. Elizabeth Health Care provides much needed guidance on the question of what is legitimate creed-based belief as opposed to mere personal preference. In this case, a Rastafarian man claimed that his home healthcare provider discriminated against him by continuing to send…

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Employees of Federally-Regulated Employers cannot be dismissed without cause, the Supreme Court of Canada Rules

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In the most recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Court established that the common law rule that a non-unionized employee can be dismissed without cause is not applicable to federally-regulated employers. In other words, federally regulated employers are always required to provide just cause or reasons for the dismissal of non-unionized employees, or may face the broad remedies provided under the Canada Labour Code, including reinstatement. In this significant case, an employee of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited was dismissed without cause or reasons after almost 5 years with the employer. The employee filed a suit alleging…

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