Canadian Employment Law Today

PM41261516 Ask an Expert PG. 2 Refusing a work-from- home request made for childcare reasons Leadership assessment fails to get to the heart of the matter at hospital PG.4 Report's failure to consider head of cardiac surgery's concerns over how female leaders are viewed in male-dominated workplaces was discriminatory: Ontario Tribunal A MULTINATIONAL company's total global payroll should be used in determining if a dismissed Ontario worker is entitled to severance pay, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled. Max Aicher (North America) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Max Aicher GmbH & Co KG, a steel com - pany based in Germany. In November 2010, Aicher purchased the assets of US Steel and kept on several of US Steel's employees. Doug Hawkes was one of those employees, having worked for US Steel and its prede - cessor since 1977. Aicher offered Hawkes continued employment as maintenance manager after the acqui- sition. Aicher terminated Hawkes' employment on Oct. 7, 2015. Hawkes filed a complaint with the Ontario Min- istry of Labour claiming termination, severance, and vacation pay. An employment standards officer found that Hawkes was entitled to termination and vacation pay, but not to severance pay. The Ontario Employ- ment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) required employers to have a payroll of $2.5 million or more for termi- nated employees to receive severance pay. Although the parent company had a much larger global payroll, THE ONTARIO Court of Appeal's recent decision in O'Reilly v. ClearMRI Solutions Ltd. provides important clarification as to the scope and application of the common employer doctrine in connection with claims for employment entitlements. In particular, O'Reilly confirms that the concept will only apply where there is evidence of an intention to create an employer-employee relationship between an individual and the related corporation in question. Common employer doctrine The common employer doctrine provides that an individual may be employed by a number of different companies at the same time. Where an individual has an employment-related claim and invokes the common employer doctrine, October 6, 2021 B.C. engineer awarded 6 months' notice after less than 3 months' work PG.3 Company's inducement of worker from secure employment, bad-faith conduct in dismissal warrant longer notice, aggravated damages SMALL EMPLOYERS on page 7 » CREDIT: MARTIN BARRAUD iSTOCK MAJORITY on page 6 » with Amy Gibson Ontario court overturns board's severance pay ruling Court finds payroll outside of Ontario should be used to determine worker's severance pay entitlement Finding common ground Ontario Court of Appeal clarifies test for common employer liability among corporate entities BY JEFFREY R. SMITH BY LUCY CARRUTHERS

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