(Originally published 2015. Updated November 2019) Lawyer Richard Johnson, Contributor. As we’ve explained elsewhere in this blog, unless there is a termination clause in her employment contract, the amount of notice or severance a dismissed employee is entitled to depends on several factors, namely: The nature of her employment Her length of service Her age […]
Archive | Blog
The High Cost of Discriminatory Hiring Practices
By Wendy Woloshyn. Most Canadians are aware that their human rights are protected on the job. What you might not know is that this protection includes the pre-employment stage. If a company’s hiring process discriminates against certain applicants on the basis of a “protected ground” (e.g. race, age, sex, family status, gender identity, etc.), or […]
Paula Krawus Presents at CLE Human Rights Conference in Vancouver (November 2019)
Paula Krawus will be part of a panel at this year’s CLEBC Human Rights Conference in Vancouver, discussing the “extraordinary” remedies available to employees through BC’s Human Rights Tribunal. Join her!
Fairness and Transparency are Key When it Comes to Bonus Entitlements on Dismissal
By Wendy Woloshyn. What happens if an employee gets fired without cause before his or her bonus gets paid? What if the employment contract says that to receive the bonus, the employee must still be employed at the time it’s paid out? The answers might surprise you. Integral and Discretionary My colleague Richard Johnson has […]
Doctor’s Note: Yes or No?
By Richard Johnson As employment lawyers, we are frequently asked whether an employer can (or should) require a medical note if an employee is away from work due to illness. Since we are right in the thick of the “home sick from work” season, we thought it timely to share our thoughts on this tricky […]
Trevor Presents at BCVTA Fall Conference (October 2019)
Join Trevor Thomas at the 2019 BC Veterinary Technologists Association’s Fall Conference for a primer on some of the key employment law topics of interest to BC’s veterinary professionals.
Fiona H. McFarlane Presents Keynote Address at YWIB (UBC) Career 101 (October 2019)
Join Keynote speaker Fiona H. McFarlane at this fall’s Young Women in Business Career 101 Conference (UBC).
How Canadian Employers Address Bullying and Harassment: Fiona McFarlane speaks to SHRM Online (July 2019)
To date, British Columbia is the only Canadian province that has developed policies specifically addressing workplace bullying. What are a BC employer’s duties when it comes to this area of employee health and safety and how can they meet them? KEL’s Fiona McFarlane recently spoke to SHRM Online’s Catherine Skrzypinski about workplace investigations and employer […]
Workplace Bullying and Harassment: What To Do if it Happens to You
By Erin Brandt. In November 2013, WorkSafeBC implemented new policies that address bullying and harassment in the workplace. These policies define bullying and harassment as: Including any inappropriate conduct or comment by a person towards a worker that the person knew or reasonably ought to have known would cause that worker to be humiliated or […]
Mental Health Protections for Employees are Good for Business – and They’re Also the Law!
By Richard Johnson. In its 2017 decision in Saadati v. Moorhead, the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed that mental health is essential to our society and its workers. In recent years, we have summarized on our blog several court decisions that reflect these principles, where a judge has granted additional damages to an employee who […]
