Unrelated Employers Do Not Create Continuous Employment

Taking on the employees of another business can create unexpected financial obligations for employers. For example, this blog has previously looked at cases of employers being found responsible for an employee's past year of service when that employer takes over or otherwise acquires a business, see Two Employers Under One Umbrella Both Get Soaked by Judge.

Those cases beg the question: When will an employer not be deemed responsible for ‎an employee's past years of service with another company? While the answer to that question is simple - when the two companies are wholly unrelated to one another - as the case of Paul Amaral v Verona Floors Inc., 2016 ONSC 5763 (CanLII) demonstrates, sometimes knowing when two companies are unrelated is a complicated question.

Too Little, Too Late. Employer Could Not Impose New Terms via Contract after Employee Accepted Letter of Offer

What happens when a potential employee signs a letter of offer, which letter makes reference to an employment agreement “to follow”, the terms of which agreement differ substantially from what is contained in the offer letter? Will the court uphold the terms of the full contract?

Put another way, can an employer make a basic offer of employment to a candidate, advise the candidate that he will be required to sign a full employment agreement at some later time, and then impose new terms via that full contract?

I have repeatedly answered that question in the negative, see e.g. No Changes Without Consideration, published June 2, 2012. More recently, on November 10, 2015, (and with much more authority) the Court of Appeal for Ontario, in its reasons for decision in Holland v. Hostopia.com Inc., 2015 ONCA 762 (CanLII) said exactly the same thing and for essentially the same reason.