Will your insurance deliver?
July 5, 2021 By Brian Babcock Are you driving your own vehicle to do deliveries or other work? If so, you need to inform your automobile insurer of that fact, or you may find yourself without coverage following an accident. In the emerging “gig economy”, this well established concept of insurance law will have application […]
Employment Contracts and the Duty to Mitigate
June 22, 2021 By Brian Babcock Failing to deal with the obligation to mitigate damages in an employment contract may result in a windfall to an employee. In Barry Gula v. Freed Developments Ltd. the employee signed a written contract of employment for an indefinite term. The contract provided a formula to calculate the employee’s […]
Employers: Do Not Imitate the Ostrich
June 15, 2021 By Brian Babcock Discrimination can affect anyone. A recent Ontario Human Rights Tribunal decision involving a cardiac surgeon illustrates this, while making the more general point that employers have a duty to investigate complaints, independent of the merits of the complaint. After all, how does the employer know if they have a […]
The Character of the Employment
June 1, 2021 By Brian Babcock The criteria for determining the appropriate notice period for an employee dismissed without cause are well-established as including length of service; the age of the employee; the availability of similar employment; and the “character of the employment”. We see many cases in which length of service is the focus. […]
Mitigation Efforts Must Be Reasonable
May 5, 2021 By Brian Babcock Mitigation is the legal term that reflects the obligation of any Plaintiff to take all reasonable steps to reduce their loses. This results in savings for the at fault defendants. Mitigation after termination of an employee is often an issue that the employer feels strongly about. Typically, however, most […]
Employees and the Oppression Remedy
April 30, 2021 By Brian Babcock Terminated employees generally are not “complainants” who are allowed to bring a claim for an oppression remedy under the Ontario Business Corporations Act section 248. We have written recently on the topic of the oppression remedy, and especially the need to demonstrate “reasonable expectations” which have been ignored. Before […]
Whistleblowers and Private Interests: Who do you trust?
April 30, 2021 By Brian Babcock Non-beneficiaries are not allowed to sue to enforce trusts. This includes an ex-employee of a corporate trustee. The Court of Appeal affirmed this in a judgment which reviews many essential concepts of trusts law and remedies, but should also be of interest to any employers at risk of extraordinary […]
Buyer Beware: Employment After Share Sale
April 6, 2021 By Brian Babcock Employment contracts related to commercial transactions remain employment contracts and employment law applies. You should not ignore this if you are involved in a purchase and sale transaction, or any terminations after the sale. Ontario courts continue to find in favour of employees on termination of employment issues. In […]
The Cost of Not Investigating Harassment Complaints
March 21, 2021 By Brian Babcock Failure to conduct a proper workplace investigation in response to a harassment complaint may be expensive. Ontario employers have an obligation to maintain a safe workplace under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Harassment explicitly makes for an unsafe workplace. There is a similar obligation under the Human Rights […]
Corporations, Charter Rights, and Cruelty
March 7, 2021 By Brian Babcock A corporation may be treated like a natural being for many purposes in the law, but not when it attempts to claim the protection of the prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment” in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The issue was decided by the Supreme Court of […]