Labour and Employment Law Blog

If revising your employment and independent contractor agreements is on the “to do” list for 2023, the recent case of Quick Pass Master Tutorial School Ltd. v Zhao, 2022 BCSC 1846 is a good reminder to review any restrictive covenants in those agreements. The law in this area is always evolving and restrictive covenants can be difficult to enforce without careful ...

In Yates v. Langley Motor Sport Centre Ltd., 2022 BCCA 398 the British Columbia Court of Appeal (“BCAA”) recently resolved much of the uncertainty surrounding whether or not payments received under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit program (“CERB”) could be deducted from damages awarded for wrongful dismissal.

The BCCA unanimously held that CERB payments ...

On November 24, 2022, Bill 41, the Workers’ Compensation Amendment Act, 2022 (the “WCA Amendments”), received Royal Assent.

As we previously reported, the WCA Amendments impose new obligations on BC employers in respect of the return of injured workers to their job. These employers will have a new statutory duty to return injured workers to their pre-injury work or ...

In our earlier blog post, we provided an overview of the new paid medical leave provisions for federally regulated employees, which are coming into force on December 1, 2022. The new provisions will entitle such employees to up to 10 days of paid medical leave per calendar year.

Initially, the amendments to the Canada Labour Code permitted the Federal Government to apply the ...

On October 31, 2022, the B.C. government introduced Bill 41 – 2022: Workers’ Compensation Amendment Act (No. 2), 2022 (the “WCA Amendments”) proposing changes to the Workers’ Compensation Act (the “WCA”). The intent behind the WCA Amendments is to bring in a more “worker-centred” approach to B.C.’s workers’ compensation system. Below we discuss ...

In the recent decision of Parmar v. Tribe Management Inc., 2022 BCSC 1675, the BC Supreme Court held that placing an employee on unpaid leave because they refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine did not amount to constructive dismissal. This case is one of the first civil court decisions in Canada that considered the validity of mandatory vaccination policies where employees ...

In 2018, after several years of working at Buzzfeed, Keith Habersberger, Ned Fulmer, Zach Kornfeld, and Eugene Lee Yang started 2^nd Try, LLC (“2^nd Try”). 2^nd Try is a California production company, created and managed by the four individuals (a.k.a. the “Try Guys”). The Try Guys produced and starred in original video content wherein – you guessed it – they try ...

Following the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022, the federal government announced earlier this week that September 19, 2022, will be a National Day of Mourning in Canada. This coincides with Her Late Majesty’s State Funeral in London and signifies the end of the official period of mourning in Canada. The full press release can be found here.

As ...

Is your organization on the right track toward accessibility, diversity and inclusion? As of June 2021, the Accessible British Columbia Act (the “Act”) is law in British Columbia. The Act’s intent is to make the province more inclusive, including for persons with disabilities.

Earlier this year, the government released the first regulation under the Act, the ...

We often assist employers in defending claims by managers who allege that the employer failed to pay overtime. In this blog post, we explore some of the common pitfalls we see in such cases.

Many employers assume that managers are never entitled to additional pay for any additional hours worked, and that the manager’s wage or salary is their entire entitlement to ...