Labour and Employment Law Blog

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 ...

As discussed in prior blog posts, the Employment Standards Regulation was previously amended to extend the temporary layoff period due to COVID-19 to a maximum of 24 weeks in a period of 28 consecutive weeks provided the layoff started before June 1, 2020 and ended by August 30, 2020. Employers wishing to extend the temporary layoff period beyond 24 weeks must apply for a ...

On May 4, 2020, the B.C. government passed an Order in Council to add a new provision to the BC Employment Standards Regulation (the “Regulation”) during the current provincial state of emergency. Temporary layoffs related to COVID-19 can now last up to 16 weeks in a 20 consecutive week period without triggering termination of employment.

This is the second change to ...

On January 1, 2020, changes to the Northwest Territories Employment Standards Act (the “Act”) and the Employment Standards Regulation (the “Regulation”) came into force. The substantive changes include new job-protected leaves of absence, additional restrictions on youth employment, and new protections for domestic workers. These amendments follow ...

Nitrogen Studios, the Vancouver animation firm behind the animated film Sausage Party, was recently ordered by the BC Employment Standards Branch to pay overtime pay to non-unionized animators on the basis that its employees did not fall within the “high technology professional” exemption in the Employment Standards Regulation. The animators claimed that they ...