Articles 2021

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic the Ministry of Labour has hired more than 100 new Inspectors to investigate workplace health and safety matters and issue orders to address their concerns. This article discusses an employer’s right to appeal an Inspector’s orders and how a failure to appeal affects a subsequent prosecution.

Workplace restoration is a response to workplace conflict that considers the context surrounding conflict, and what is needed to create a healthy and harmonious workplace. In this article, we describe workplace restoration, situate it within the applicable regulatory regime, and offer our views on when it should be considered by employers and their counsel.

In this article mediator Barry Fisher discusses four trends that he has observed in 2020 about employment mediations.

As the COVID-19 pandemic concludes its first year, we have seen a slow release of decisions assessing infectious disease prevention policies. From the applicable jurisprudence, a central theme has emerged: an employer’s duty to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker under section 25(2)(h) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act will be interpreted expansively where catastrophic injury and loss of life may arise from an unknown hazard.

This article reviews three recent arbitration decisions in which unionized employees were dismissed for failing to adhere to workplace COVID-19 policies. The authors canvass emerging trends and discuss factors that ought to be considered in this developing area of law.

This article discusses major shifts and the most noteworthy employment-related decisions of 2020. Although COVID-19 demanded significant attention from both employers and lawmakers, there were several significant judicial developments which were independent of the pandemic.

2020 was a tumultuous year in labour relations given the pandemic, and the decisions coming out of the Ontario Labour Relations Board (the "Board") reflect this. This article explores some of the key decisions and trends that defined advocacy at the Board in the past year.

This article reviews notable changes to federally-regulated employers’ obligations when the new Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations come into force as of January 1, 2021. These new Regulations create one regime for both workplace violence and sexual harassment and set out requirements with regard to workplace harassment and violence prevention policies, workplace assessments, training, and procedural requirements.