Canadian Employment Law Today

May 1, 2019

Focuses on human resources law from a business perspective, featuring news and cases from the courts, in-depth articles on legal trends and insights from top employment lawyers across Canada.

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PM40065782 Emplo y ment Law Today Canad ad a ian www.employmentlawtoday.com Do you know the diff erence between a layoff and termination? If you're an employer, you should BY JEREMY AMBRASKA AND LAUREN DITSCHUN EACH CANADIAN jurisdiction has its own employment standards legislation with unique layoff language and require- ments. e rules are not consistent or straightforward and there are many ex- ceptions and exemptions. In Ontario, for example, a temporary layoff is deemed a termination of em- ployment if the layoff lasts longer than 13 weeks in any period of 20 consecu- tive weeks. However, a temporary layoff may last for up to 35 weeks in any period of 52 consecutive weeks if the employer continues the employee's coverage un- der a group or employee insurance plan, retirement or pension plan, or provides substantial payments or supplementary unemployment benefi ts to the employee during the layoff period. Moving forward If you think the option to lay off employ- ees could be helpful to your business, but you don't have written agreements to this eff ect, all is not lost. Do not simply change your employment agreement without le- gal advice, as a unilateral change may be unenforceable. Innocent absenteeism termination provision doesn't override duty to accommodate Collective agreement provision allowing termination after 2 years of absence due to injury didn't release employer from duty to accommodate BY JEFFREY R. SMITH AN ONTARIO municipality's termination of an employee after he was off work from an injury for two years was permitted under the collective agreement but still was a failure to meet its duty to accommodate, an arbitrator has ruled. Robert Reed was hired as a paramedic for the District of Halton and Mississauga, Ont., Ambulance Service in November 1984. Twenty years later, the district became the Regional Municipality of Peel and Reed's position and employment were transferred to the newly formed municipality. On April 15, 2014, Reed was injured on the job and was granted loss-of-employment benefi ts from the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) for the time he was off work. e following month, on May 9, he provided a medical note to the munici- pality that stated he would be off work due to medical reasons unrelated to his workers' compensation claim. He began receiving May 1, 2019 Injured worker dances back into job after dismissal pg. 3 Employer believed videos of worker dancing weren't compatible with physical restrictions Sexually harassed CRA worker gets $60,000+ pg. 4 Response to complaint immediate, but then slowed; onus put on victim for solution PROVIDER on page 6 » CONTRACT on page 7 » CREDIT: BY TEMP-64GTX/SHUTTERSTOCK with Brian Johnston Ask the Expert pg. 2 Changing shift schedule and days off

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