Labour & Employment Archives - Anonymous Law Student

Confidential Employees – Collective Bargaining

anon — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 20:16:34 +0000

Confidential employees are excluded from collective bargaining because they might be able to give the union access to matters that the employers do not wish them to know about such as bargaing strategy, grievances, etc. (Canadian Union of Bank Employees v. Nova Scotia). That being said, confidential employees will only be excluded if there is …

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Terms of Employment Contracts

anon — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 18:08:32 +0000

The rules of employment contracts are similar to the rules of contract in general. For example, as per the freedom of contract, one is fully entitled to choose whether or not they want to enter into a contract. This applies to employment contracts as well. Employers are free to decide whether or not they want to enter into a contract with you i.e. hire you. Just like in regular contracts, the principles of offer, acceptance, consensus ad idem, etc are necessary to form an employment contract. An employer cannot unilaterally impose a contractual term onto an employee.

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Collective Bargaining – Excluded Employees

anon — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 20:14:29 +0000

As per labour relations legislation, some employees are excluded from collective bargaining. In the past this exclusion has survived Charter scrutiny as it has been held that the freedom of association and freedom of speech do not guarantee a right to collectively bargain. However, newer case law seems to suggest that there is a Charter protected right to collectively bargain. In Health Services, it was held that the Charter includes a procedural right to collectively bargain, but does not guarantee particular objectives. Further, the Charter does not protect all aspects of associational activity, only those which constitute a substantial interference with associational activity. Notably, Bill 5 in SK designates certain employees as “essential services”, and restricts their rights to collectively bargain.

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Contractors Under Collective Bargaining

anon — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 17:14:01 +0000

Generally, independent contractors are excluded from collective bargaining. It is believed that they are financially independent enough such that they do not require the protection of collective bargaining. Either of the tests above can be applied to determine if an individual is a contractor or an employee.

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Wrongful Dismissal – Reasonable Notice

anon — Sat, 13 May 2023 17:09:35 +0000

When it comes to wrongful dismissal, the main job of the court is to determine what is reasonable notice (i.e. you get paid money to compensate you). This is an implied term of the employment contract as per common law. There are two main approaches to determine reasonable notice. The oft-cited Bardal approach where the court considers such factors as the character of employment, length of service of the servant, age of the servant and availability of similar employment (most important) having regard to the experience, training, and qualifications of the servant. The Bardal approach is augmented with by the Lazarowicz approach, approved by the SK QB in Bartlam. Here, the court imagines that the employer and the employee had sat down at had a chat at the time the employee was hired. How much of a notice period would they have agreed upon? This approach is useful because it takes it flexibly takes into account factors such as the economic situation, norms of the industry and so on.

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Compensation Wrongful Dismissal (Canada)

anon — Thu, 11 May 2023 18:12:04 +0000

The measure of damages for wrongful dismissal is governed by the length of the notice period in the contract of employment, because what makes the dismissal unlawful at common law is the employer’s failure to give due notice or wages in lieu of. Therefore, the employer can recover only for wages and benefits that he or she would have been legally entitled to during the contractual notice period.

If the employer acted in a particularly repulsive way in the manner of dismissal, there is no additional recourse for the employee unless the employee can show that the employer’s conduct constituted an independently actionable tort such as mental distress (Honda v. Keays).

When dismissed, an employee has a duty to mitigate damages (Evans v. Teamsters). The dismissed employee has an obligation to seek alternative employment immediately to minimize their loss. Where the employer has offered the employee a chance to mitigate damages by returning to work, the central issue is whether a reasonable person would accept such an opportunity.

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COMMON LAW – CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT

anon — Sun, 23 May 2021 20:05:16 +0000

Here is a broad overview of various topics in labour and employment law. This would come out predominantly from a Canadian context.

If you work for somebody, then by definition you have an employment contract, i.e. the common law contract of employment. Generally, there is an explicit contract written out between employer and employee, other times the contract is just implied to exist at common law. The common law contract of employment is basic which is why employees prefer to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement. That being said, the courts have attempted to build a “floor of rights” into the common law contract of employment. A barrier they have encountered is that there is no room for the common law and statute to develop in tandem, i.e. if a right is covered as per statute then that right cannot exist at common law.

The common law contract of employment is poor because at common law there aren’t many developments that create substantive or procedural rights for employees, there is a huge imbalance of power between employers and employees which undermine the freedom to contract; civil litigation is a costly and time-consuming process.

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Reinstatement Employment Common Law

anon — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 18:12:57 +0000

Generally, reinstatement is not a remedy available at common law. However, this remedy may be available as per statute or collective bargaining agreement. For obvious reasons, reinstatement is not a popular remedy: it would create tension and awkwardness in the workplace.

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Managers and Collective Bargaining

anon — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 20:15:39 +0000

Managers are usually excluded from collective bargaining as it is a fundamental premise of labour law that there is a conflict of interest between management and workers (Children’s Aid Society). The most important factors in determining if an individual is a manager are: the power to discipline, the power to hire, promote, demote, and grant wage increases (Children’s Aid). In addition we look to see the discretion exercised by these individuals (Quebec Telephone), being sure to distinguish whether the discretion exercised is “real” discretion, or just implementation of a rubric or policy manual.

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Professional and Public Employees – Collective Bargaining

anon — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 17:15:08 +0000

Some statutes exclude certain professional employees from collective bargaining, on the basis that these employees already enjoy a privileged economic position. Traditionally, public employees were excluded from collective bargaining but nowadays we see more public sector employees involved in collective bargaining. Often public employees are covered by special collective bargaining statutes which put certain restricts …

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