What Does it Mean to be a Volunteer under Ontario Employment Law?

What is a "volunteer" under Ontario employment law? The question is more complicated than it might first appear. Most people know what a volunteer is: it is someone who freely gives of their time, usually towards some altruistic purpose. But what is the difference between a "volunteer" and a wrongfully unpaid worker?

Employers Must Sue for Indemnification Within Two Years: ONCA

What is the limitation period applicable to a claim for indemnification, where the right to indemnification is contained within an employment contract? According to the Court of Appeal for Ontario, two years from the date upon which the original claim is served on the employer.

As reported earlier by this blog in the post Limitation Period Applicable to a Claim for Indemnification in October of last year the Honourable Madam Justice Heidi Polowin of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sitting at Ottawa found that the limitation period applicable to a claim for indemnification pursuant to an employment contract was not affected by section 18 of the Ontario Limitations Act, 2002.

In my January 2013 post, mentioned above, I argued that the decision was incorrect and contradicted two earlier decisions from 2010, one from the Court of Appeal for Ontario and one from the Superior Court.

Yesterday, June 7, 2013 the Court of Appeal released its decision, Canaccord Capital Corporation v. Roscoe, 2013 ONCA 378. The Court of Appeal reached the same conclusion as did this author.

Can Independent Contractors Get EI Benefits?

Can an independent contractor receive Employment Insurance ("EI", formerly "UI") benefits when he is fired from his position?

While the answer should be no, the real answer -like everything in law- is "it depends."

Claims of a Hostile Work Environment: Shields not Swords?

As regular readers of this blog will know, this blog has long taken issue with the Court of Appeal for Ontario's decision in Piresferreira v. Ayotte, 2010 ONCA 384 (CanLII). The court's decision - that employees cannot sue for an employer's negligent infliction of mental suffering - has previously been considered in the post Tort Damages Place in Wrongful Dismissal Cases.

Although I have previously argued that the Piresferreira decision was legally wrong and, in fact, contrary to other appellate decisions including Sulz v. Canada, 2006 BCCA 582 and Queen v. Cognos, (the Supreme Court of Canada did not disturb or address the trial judge's award of $5,000 in damages for "emotional stress" in its decision in Queen v. Cognos Inc., [1993] 1 SCR 87,) this post will focus on a different issue: whether the decision highlights the differences to which claims of a hostile work environment can be put.

As I will argue below, it my thesis that contrary to Court of Appeal's position that it is "unnecessary and undesirable to expand the court’s involvement" into questions of a hostile work environment was wrong. While Ontario’s courts have been unwilling to accept claims of a hostile work environment when wielded as a “sword”, Ontario courts have shown that they are prepared to consider such claims when employees advance such arguments as a “shield.”

Employees Cannot Make Complaints to the Labour Board and Sue

(c) istock/denisik11

Can an Ontario employee make a complaint to the “Labour Board” - technically the Employment Standards Program of the Ontario Ministry of Labour - and sue his or her employer for wrongful dismissal as well?

Pursuant to both section 97 of the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 and a decision from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Limebeer v. Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd., 2013 ONSC 2735 (CanLII), the answer is “no”.

Request For Doctor's Note After Illness Discriminatory: HRTO

Is it a discriminatory practice to ask an employee to produce a doctor's note confirming that she is in a "normal" state of health before allowing her to return to work after an illness?

According to a recent decision from the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, Thompson v. 1552754 Ontario Inc., 2013 HRTO 716 (CanLII), the answer can be yes.

Whose Invention Is It Anyway?

Does the existence of an employee/employer relationship disqualify an employee from patenting an invention discovered in the course of employment?

According to a 2000 decision from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Techform Products Ltd. v. Wolda, 2000 CanLII 22597; varied for reasons other than the issues considered in this post in 2001 CanLII 8604 (ON CA) the answer is "no."