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Workplace Harassment, Wrongful Dismissal Kevin Patrick Robbins Workplace Harassment, Wrongful Dismissal Kevin Patrick Robbins

The Maleficent guide to employee mismanagement: lessons for Ontario employers

Over close to 9 weeks of social-distancing, my 2-year old daughter and I have watched Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (at her request, I promise) at least 167 times (and often before the sun rises). As we both became word-perfect, I realized this movie, in addition to great animation, holds some important lessons for Ontario employers and employees.

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Q&A Ontario Employment, COVID-19 & Employment Kevin Patrick Robbins Q&A Ontario Employment, COVID-19 & Employment Kevin Patrick Robbins

COVID-19 and the workplace: Answers to common Ontario employment questions

Please note: the situation with COVID-19 is continuing to rapidly develop. In the coming days and weeks, it is likely that both levels of government may introduce additional measures/legislation that could impact employee rights/obligations. We will look to update this page accordingly. If, however, you have specific questions about your workplace entitlements, please contact an employment lawyer directly.

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Coronavirus (COVID-19): What Ontario Employers Should Know

For the past two months, the attention of the world has been fixed on Wuhan, China, as the epicentre of a new respiratory virus. The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (or 2019-nCoV) has been declared a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” by the World Health Organization and as of February 8, 2020, there have been eight (8) confirmed cases in Canada.

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Accommodation, Discrimination, Human Rights Kevin Patrick Robbins Accommodation, Discrimination, Human Rights Kevin Patrick Robbins

Food for thought: do employers need to accommodate ethical veganism in the workplace?

The Ontario Human Rights Code (the “Code”) protects employees from discrimination in the workplace based on one (or more) of its protected grounds, which include disability, age, creed, sexual orientation, and gender identity. It further places a positive obligation on Ontario employers to reasonably accommodate employees to the point of undue hardship.

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Q&A Ontario Employment, Employee Rights Kevin Patrick Robbins Q&A Ontario Employment, Employee Rights Kevin Patrick Robbins

Q&A: Employment Law for Locally-Engaged Staff of Embassies and Consulates in Canada

Q&A is a recurring series on the Vey Willetts LLP blog. The aim is to provide quick answers to questions we commonly encounter in our day-to-day practice of employment law. In this edition, we focus on how employment law applies to foreign embassies and consulates that engage Canadian citizens and permanent residents to work at their diplomatic missions in Canada (“locally-engaged staff”).  

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Employment Contracts, Employee Hiring Kevin Patrick Robbins Employment Contracts, Employee Hiring Kevin Patrick Robbins

Promising the Moon: Risk Management in Employee Recruitment

As an employer in a competitive market, there may be a strong business case to actively recruit top-performing employees from other companies. While there can be clear advantages to attracting talented and qualified employees, an aggressive recruitment strategy targeting workers in otherwise stable employment can also lead to unintended liability.

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Employment Contracts, Wrongful Dismissal Kevin Patrick Robbins Employment Contracts, Wrongful Dismissal Kevin Patrick Robbins

Is the termination clause in my employment agreement enforceable?

One of the issues we commonly encounter, when speaking with both individuals and employers, is whether the language in their employment contract addressing termination is enforceable.

For employees, where a termination provision is unenforceable, it can mean they have an entitlement to increased severance. Whereas for employers, if the clause does not hold, it can create uncertainty and result in unintended liability.

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Human Rights, Discrimination, Accommodation Kevin Patrick Robbins Human Rights, Discrimination, Accommodation Kevin Patrick Robbins

Employer ordered to pay $120,000.00 for discriminatory hiring practices

In a prior blog article, we wrote about an important decision from the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (“HRTO”) concerning discriminatory hiring practices. That case was Haseeb v. Imperial Oil, and the decision involved Imperial Oil’s policy of requiring all project engineer job applicants to hold either Canadian citizenship or permanent residency in order to be eligible for employment.

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News Kevin Patrick Robbins News Kevin Patrick Robbins

Vey Willetts LLP Turns Five!

Vey Willetts LLP started operations in August 2014, when lawyers Andrew Vey and Paul Willetts relocated from Toronto to Ottawa, with both keen to return to Eastern Ontario after several years working in the GTA. The firm was a true “start-up”, begun without a single client. As such, job #1 was to get the telephone ringing and clients through the door.

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