- When cost of living spikes, workers expect more from employers - January 4, 2024
- ‘Devil will be in the details’ with proposed workplace amendments - November 29, 2023
- Anti-scab legislation ‘another percolating employment issue’ - November 6, 2023
From new government reglations to breaking down the Employment Standards Act, employment lawyer Jeffrey M. Andrew, a partner with Cavalluzzo LLP, kept clients informed on all the latest labour-related developments in 2022.
Andrew started the year discussing the Ontario government’s newly minted Working for Workers Act, 2021 (WWA) which introduced changes intended to create a better work/life balance for employees. However, he said the devil was in the details since some of those details were not yet known at that time. Time will tell if new worker protection legislation is effective
A basic understanding of the Employment Standards Act can help workers and employers avoid undue grief, he noted in his next post. ESA has answers to help avoid workplace disputes
In April, Andrew explained that a union’s responsibility to protect the collective interests of all members, just an individual’s rights, is one reason a bid to force one union to file a grievance on behalf of a group of workers opposed to the federal government’s vaccine mandate failed. Unions careful when it comes to duty of fair representation
In his next post, he discussed how recent court rulings demonstrated the consequences that inappropriate behaviour in the workplace can bring. Inappropriate workplace behaviour ‘dangerous to your career’
Holding back information while bargaining for a collective agreement may tilt the negotiations in your favour but a failure to disclose some details could be seen as bargaining in bad faith, Andrew said in August. Failure to disclose in negotiations can have consequences
In October, he explained that while unionized workers may have a right to strike it is not an absolute right and the wrong timing can have legal and financial repercussions. Unionized workers’ right to strike can be misunderstood
The next month, Andrew said expected it will be “business as usual” following a Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) ruling that dealt with the jurisdiction of workplace human rights claims. Human rights ruling is unlikely to change how claims are adjudicated
He closed off the year by noting that an employee owed severance after being wrongfully dismissed has a responsibility to seek new employment but that does not mean they must take just any job. Duty to mitigate doesn’t mean you must take an inferior job offer
