The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) has proposed a number of revisions to its rules of procedure which are intended to address delays and reduce its growing backlog of cases.
Bill 229, the Working for Workers Six Act, 2024, received Royal Assent on December 19, 2024. This article reviews the resulting amendments to the ESA and the OHSA and relevant coming-into-force information.
In this article, we explore five notable cases from 2024 and the key lessons they offer for employers navigating human rights and accommodation issues in the workplace.
This year brought more cases about termination clauses, the employer’s duty to provide a safe working environment, the duty to handle employee terminations with sensitivity and in good faith, fixed-term contracts, and more.
2024 brought some interesting arbitration decisions addressing a wide range of workplace issues, from mandatory vaccination policies and employee privacy rights to workplace misconduct and the limits of arbitral jurisdiction. This article highlights a few we thought were worthy of mention.
In a recent (and rare!) decision from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Court upheld a termination provision that limited an employee’s compensation upon termination to only the minimum entitlements under the Employment Standards Act, 2000.
An employer failed to protect an employee from assault and sexual harassment in the workplace, and then terminated her employment when she could not return to work due to related mental health disability.
The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a decision awarding, among other things, $15,000 in moral damages against an employer for bad faith dismissal. The employee had secretly recorded the meeting and successfully used this as evidence in support of their claim.
Ontario Bill 190, the Working for Workers Five Act, 2024, received Royal Assent on October 28, 2024. Bill 190 amends the ESA, the OHSA and other legislation.
An employer’s promise of confidentiality may not protect complaint or investigation documents from disclosure in court proceedings.
Application alleging sexual harassment and discrimination dismissed for failure to establish nexus between workplace and misconduct.
An employer’s delay in imposing discipline for alleged sexual harassment does not necessarily render the discipline null and void.
