What Nova Scotia employers need to know about province’s updated workplace harassment legislation
By Julius Melnitzer | October 19, 2025 Nova Scotia’s government is formally recognizing workplace harassment as a health and safety issue with the introduction of new regulations to its Occupational Health and Safety Act. “All employers in Nova Scotia have an obligation to ensure workers’ health and safety — and that obligation now specifically includes a duty […]
Ontario arbitrator confirms validity of LTD exception to mandatory retirement rule
By Julius Melnitzer | September 24.2025 An Ontario arbitrator has confirmed the validity of the long-term disability exception to the mandatory retirement rule. When Ontario eliminated mandatory retirement in 2006, the legislation provided an exception for insured employment benefit plans to maintain a cutoff based on age. “This was intended to avoid destabilizing existing insurance plans […]
Employee’s termination following mental-health leave not discriminatory: tribunal
By Julius Melnitzer | September 8, 2025 The Human Rights Tribunal of Alberta has ruled that termination of employment on the day an employee returns from a year-long mental-health leave doesn’t, in and of itself, support a discrimination complaint. “In this case, the employer had valid grounds for termination before the medical leave started, and […]
Supreme Court could determine how employee termination impacts profit-sharing agreements
By: Julius Melnitzer | July 31, 2025 In a recent case, the Supreme Court of Canada is being asked to consider a question that has long divided courts and vexed employers: are agreements that forfeit employees’ unvested equity-based compensation on termination enforceable, even if the vesting is scheduled to occur during the reasonable notice period? “The […]
What employers need to know when terminating employees in remote-working arrangements
By: Julius Melnitzer | July 14, 2025 In order to avoid exposure to unnecessary and expensive litigation and unforeseen liabilities, it’s important for employers to determine which jurisdiction’s rules apply when terminating an employee in a remote-working arrangement, according to several employment lawyers. “Most employment relationships in Canada are governed by local provincial or territorial law, […]
The importance of a well-drafted confidentiality clause, and the dangers of AI
By Julius Melnitzer | July 8, 2025 A recent US$3.1-million award by a Florida jury in favour of Pliteq, Inc. (Pliteq, Inc. v. Mostafa, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 60316), a Canadian international engineering services and manufacturing enterprise, against a high-ranking Dubai-based employee who stole trade secrets demonstrates that — despite cross-border tensions — Donald Trump’s America may […]
What are the considerations for employers introducing AI in a unionized workplace?
By: Julius Melnitzer | May 28, 2025 In the unionized workplace, the implementation of artificial intelligence isn’t just a management decision — it’s also a bargaining issue. “Just don’t assume you can quietly roll AI out, because it’s something to which the unions are paying attention,” says Lisa Stam, managing partner at Springlaw Professional Corp. “And […]
Ontario court rules employer’s termination clause enforceable due to clear language, entitlements
By: Julius Melnitzer | May 19, 2025 A recent Ontario Superior Court decision demonstrates that it remains possible for employers to insert enforceable termination clauses in employment contracts. For some five years now, a host of decisions have struck down as unenforceable termination clauses that purport to displace employees’ right to reasonable notice or pay in […]
Ontario court rules employer’s return-to-workplace request amounts to constructive dismissal
By: Julius Melnitzer | March 24, 2025 Ontario’s small claims court has ruled that recalling an employee from a remote working arrangement to in-person work can amount to a constructive dismissal giving rise to liability for damages. The employee in question, Lesley Byrd, had worked for Welcome Home Children’s Residence Inc. in Ottawa since 2018, but […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Dentons faces AML charges | Is private equity taking over the profession? | Historic Shell emissions judgment overturned – but landmines remain | Hogan Lovells mistakenly discloses 4,321 privileged documents | Sun Life report: Canadian pension risk transfers exceed $3 billion in 2024
By Julius Melnitzer | March 23, 2025 DENTONS MUST FACE AML CHARGES The Law Society Gazette reports that the UK’s High Court has overturned the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal’s (SDT) dismissal of anti-money laundering charges against Dentons. The SDT ruled that Dentons’ breach was “inadvertent” and did not amount to professional misconduct. But on appeal by […]