The Chartwell Chronicles: Employment Law
Managing the Size and Structure of Your Post-Pandemic Workforce
#WorkforceWednesday: OSHA ETS on Hold, Retaliation Claims Increase, "Vaccination Ambassadors" - Employment Law This Week®
Welcome to our new bi-monthly series, where we compare employment law and practice from an international perspective, drawing on the experience of local and international employment lawyers who deal with these issues every...more
In Croke v. VuPoint System Ltd., 2024 ONCA 354, the Court of Appeal for Ontario (OCA) upheld the Superior Court of Justice – Ontario (SCJ)’s summary judgment decision that an employee’s refusal to comply with their employer’s...more
The Ontario Court of Appeal recently held that an employee’s failure to meet COVID-19 vaccination requirements imposed by a third party amounted to frustration of the employment contract. As a result, there was no obligation...more
Maryland Health Care Provider Terminated Employee with Vision Impairments for Requesting Reasonable Accommodation on First Day of Work - BALTIMORE – All Day Medical Care Clinic, LLC, which operates five medical clinics in...more
In Aldergrove Duty Free Shop Ltd. v. MacCallum, 2024 BCCA 28, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia (BCCA) dismissed an employer’s appeal when it agreed with the lower court that the employer could not use the frustration...more
In Gannon v. Kinsdale Carriers, 2024 ONSC 1060, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice denied common law reasonable notice to an employee who was wrongfully dismissed from her employment on the basis that she failed to...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a summary judgment award on an employee’s failure-to-accommodate claim. The Court’s decision focused on the employer’s improperly narrow delineation of the...more
In Shalagin v. Mercer Celgar Limited Partnership, 2023 BCCA 373, the British Columbia Court of Appeal (BCCA) upheld the lower court’s dismissal of an employee’s wrongful dismissal claim and its finding that his surreptitious...more
The Belfast Industrial Tribunal in Northern Ireland has recently rejected two claims of unfair dismissal following sectarian (anti-Catholic) chants posted on social media. We look at the implications of clashing views on...more
A recent employment tribunal case, Alsnih v. Al Quds Al-Arabi Publishing & Advertising, ruled that a journalist was unfairly dismissed for refusing to install a work-related app on her personal phone. The app was considered...more
In Dove v Destiny Media Technologies Inc., 2023 BCSC 1032 , the Supreme Court of British Columbia found that an employer had just cause for the dismissal of a full-time employee who worked on a side business during working...more
In Teljeur v Aurora Hotel Group, 2023 ONSC 1324, a wrongful dismissal case, the court awarded the plaintiff-employee seven months’ damages for reasonable notice, and $15,000 in moral damages due to the employer’s bad-faith...more
A key issue that staffing agencies often face in litigation is whether the end of a temporary work assignment constitutes a “discharge” of the employee’s employment with the staffing agency. In a favorable ruling for staffing...more
In December 2022, the Alberta legislature passed a bill allowing for an increase to the limit on civil claims in the Alberta Court of Justice (formerly, the Provincial Court of Alberta and sometimes referred to as "small...more
On Tuesday, March 21, 2023, the Connecticut Supreme Court announced a significant new decision concerning lawsuits by employees alleging “wrongful discharge in violation of public policy.” Most employers in Connecticut are...more
On March 3, 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain, presiding over Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy, issued an opinion declaring Act 41-2022 (Act No. 41) null and void ab initio. Law 41-2022 Amendments - Act No....more
The Alberta Court of Appeal determined that Canada Emergency Response Benefit (“CERB”) payments are not deductible from wrongful dismissal damages, following an emerging trend from other jurisdictions....more
The Alberta Court of Appeal (ABCA) recently addressed an increasingly common question—whether financial support provided under the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) program to workers directly affected by COVID-19...more
First Canadian Appellate Court determines that Canada Emergency Response Benefits (“CERB”) payments are not deductible from wrongful dismissal damages. In Yates v Langley Motor Sport Centre Ltd., the British Columbia...more
In Lake v. La Presse, 2022 ONCA 742, the only issue on appeal was whether the lower court erred in reducing the employee’s wrongful dismissal damages for failure to mitigate. The Ontario Court of Appeal (OCA) set aside the...more
The recent decision of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, Wisser v CEM International Management Consultants Ltd., 2022 ABQB 414, determined that the oppression remedy under the Alberta Business Corporations Act (“ABCA”),...more
In a wrongful dismissal action against four corporate defendants that were part of a family business, the plaintiff claimed the defendants were common employers, that he was their employee prior to his dismissal, and was...more
In Wisser v CEM International Management Consultants Ltd, 2022 ABQB 414 (CEM International), the court used the oppression remedy to hold directors of a corporation personally liable for damages for wrongful dismissal after...more
In a recent decision, Terence Meehan v. Medical Information Technology, Inc., the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that an employer cannot terminate an employee for exercising the right to file a rebuttal to a...more
On December 17, 2021, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (SJC) held that an employee has a cause of action against an employer for wrongful discharge where the employer terminates the employee for exercising the...more