The recent case of Fernandes v. Goveas signals a protective attitude of the court towards employees entitled to overtime but who did not bring their case to court within the statutory two-year limitation period. Together with other case law, this suggests that employees may be able to recover some entitlements, even if they did not manage to start their suit before the two-year deadline, as is normally required. Ms. Fernandes immigrated to Canada from India to serve as a live-in housekeeper for her sister and her husband and worked for them for nine years. Although the family admitted to underpaying Ms. Fernandes,…
The recent Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) case Potter v. New Brunswick sets an important precedent for the protection of employee rights across Canada. After Potter, an employer’s ability to suspend its employees has been limited to a set of clearly-defined circumstances, and the abuse of the suspension power will culminate in liability for constructive dismissal of the employee. David Potter, the Executive Director for the New Brunswick Legal Aid Services Commission, was suspended for an indefinite time while on sick leave. No details were provided to Mr. Potter regarding the reasons for the suspension, or its possible length. After over two months of…
After work conduct resulting in criminal charges not grounds for just cause dismissal, Ontario Superior Court of Justice rules Employers have the right to dismiss their employees for just cause, but off-duty conduct involving criminal charges by itself will not constitute such just cause, the court in Merritt v Tigercat Industries recently held. In order to adequately protect employees’ rights and privacy, employers are required to undertake an investigation into the supposed conduct and are only allowed to dismiss employees on this basis in a limited set of circumstances. In Merritt the employee, who was a general laborer at a…
Employees are entitled to reasonable notice at common law, unless their employment contract states otherwise. Notice provisions must, however, comply with the minimum requirements, as set out by the Employment Standards Act (ESA), regarding the minimum notice period and full benefit continuation, and they will otherwise be held as void and unenforceable. In Oudin v Le Centre Francophone de Toronto the court recently weighed in on the question of the standard of compliance with the ESA minimums. In this case, the employee was hired as a magazine production manager and subsequently dismissed without cause when the sales of the magazine…
In a recent case, the Ontario Divisional Court clarified the standard required for dismissal of employees during probationary periods. Employers are reminded that probationary periods are to serve as a time for determining the “suitability” of the employee for employment, but employers must be fair in their assessment. In Nagribianko v Select Wine Merchants Ltd., an employee started employment with Select Wine Merchants on a six-month probationary period and was dismissed just before the end of the trial period. The employee filed a wrongful dismissal suit. The Ontario Divisional Court held that the standard of dismissal for probationary employees is…