Labour and Employment Law Blog

The new Liberal government’s tax policy focuses on relieving the tax burden on the middle- class and increasing taxation generally for those earning more than $200,000. As part of that plan, the Liberal government plans to eliminate the tax deduction on employee stock option benefits over $100,000 and increase federal marginal tax rates on individuals with an annual ...

Long anticipated amendments to the federal private sector privacy legislation, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”), were made with the passing into law of the Digital Privacy Act in late June. 

In the employment context, PIPEDA applies to federally regulated employers (including banks, telecommunication ...

On June 19, 2015, the Federal Government enacted the Policy Committees, Work Place Committees and Health and Safety Representatives Regulations. These Regulations impose new obligations on federally regulated businesses in respect of their health and safety committees or representative. The Regulations ensure that federally regulated workplaces are required to ...

The federal government has enacted a new tax law that requires unions to disclose financial information (Bill C-377, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, passed on June 30, 2015). The bill had been slowly progressing for four years. It was the first private member’s bill to proceed to the Senate this session, and its passing was the final legislative act of the 41st Parliament.

On May 14, 2015, Bill 9, the Workers' Compensation Amendment Act, 2015, was given Royal Assent. As we previously reported, the amendments significantly expand WorkSafeBC’s powers to deal with non-compliance and increase employers’ obligations in respect of workplace health and safety. Several sections of the statute are now in force. Of particular note is the new ...

Employers frequently ask us whether they are allowed to suspend an employee, and, if they do so, whether there is a risk that the employee may sue for constructive dismissal. In a Supreme Court of Canada judgment released on Friday, the main issue was, in what circumstances may a non-unionized employee who is suspended indefinitely with pay claim to have been constructively ...

On February 11, 2015, the B.C. Government tabled Bill 9, the Workers’ Compensation Amendment Act, 2015 which if passed, significantly expands WorkSafeBC’s powers to deal with non-compliance and increases employers’ obligations in respect of workplace health and safety.

The purpose of the legislation is to strengthen WorkSafeBC’s ability to promote and ...

Less than two weeks after handing down one landmark case on the freedom of association, the Court released another such case last Friday, Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan, 2015 SCC 4. The significance of this decision is that the Court has ruled that the right to strike is a guaranteed right of freedom of association protected by Section 2(d) of the Canadian ...

The Supreme Court of Canada released a judgment last Friday that strengthens and expands the protection of freedom of association under s. 2(d) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The main issue in this case was the constitutionality of the employee association scheme for members of the RCMP, who are excluded from public sector federal labour relations legislation ...