Serious insight for serious situations.

Serious insight for serious situations.

Insights

Reflections and news direct from Rubin Thomlinson.
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Ontario’s new Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act and why workplace investigations have suddenly become more important

On October 27, 2015, the Ontario government tabled its Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act (Supporting Survivors and Challenging Sexual Violence and Harassment) 2015 (the “Act”).  The Act amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and in particular, those provisions brought in through Bill 168 in 2010 that set out employers’ obligations to have

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The Riskie business of modifying employment contracts – Ontario court upholds the validity of a fixed-term agreement purporting to modify an indefinite employment relationship

The “Fresh Consideration” Doctrine The need for “fresh consideration” has long been a fundamental requirement to the enforceability of contracts. More specifically, in the absence of exceptional circumstances, an existing obligation or duty to perform cannot be used as valid consideration for the creation of a new contract. The legal doctrine of “fresh consideration” is

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Can employers make unilaterally imposed deductions to recover inadvertent overpayments to employees?

I have, on a number of recent occasions, had employers contact me to determine what options are available to them when they have mistakenly overpaid an employee. Most employers wish to simply reverse the overpayment on a following pay thereby deducting the overpayment from wages owing. Section 11(1) of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 of

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Employee entitlement to time off on federal election day

It is election time once again!  In just a few short days millions of Canadians will be rushing to the polling stations to cast their votes to determine Canada’s next Prime Minister. With October 19, 2015 just around the corner, we felt it was a good time to remind both employees of their rights and

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Workplace investigations: Interviews, note taking and other best practices

The decision in Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco & Grain Millers International Union, Local 410 v. Canada Bread Company Limited, 2015 CanLII 20939 (NL LA) was interesting not only for its outcome, but equally for the description of the workplace investigation conducted into the horseplay/violence incident giving rise to the grievance arbitration. This incident occurred on April

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Abstinence is best?

The people who ran the Northern Lights Manor (the “Manor”), a personal care home in Flin Flon, Manitoba, certainly thought so.  However, their steadfast belief in this approach to dealing with alcohol addiction has now led to a very costly legal decision against the Manor. Linda Horrocks worked at the Manor as a health care

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Employer whose conduct was “outrageous,” “cheap,” and “mean” ordered to pay terminated employee $100,000 in punitive damages

When I first started practising employment law many years ago, there was a phenomenon known as “building a case for cause”.  When you represented an employee, as I often did at the time, you could always tell when an employer was trying to do this.  After a lengthy and often unblemished tenure of employment, your

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“Draconian” termination provision found enforceable

With an introductory paragraph that reads like a soap opera, the recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Kielb v. National Money Mart Company quickly caught my attention. As summarized by Justice Akhtar, This case involves allegations of broken promises, ambiguous clauses and inequitable treatment and, at its heart, a contract that

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