About Rudner Law, Employment / HR Law & Mediation
Talking damages: Put your money where your mouth is
When it comes to human rights cases, awards for general damages are often less than $10,000, even though the $10,000 cap on general damages was removed almost a decade ago.
Rudner Law, Employment / HR Law & Mediation
12 minutes read
August 4, 2017 
Contract or gratuitous promise: the need for consideration
Employment lawyers spend a lot of time assessing whether contracts of employment are enforceable or not. The first thing that I check, when I review a contract of employment, is the date. What I’m attempting to determine is whether the contract was signed before or after there was already a verbal agreement in place.
Rudner Law, Employment / HR Law & Mediation
Can you force an employee to provide proof of their religion or their religious beliefs?
Can you force an employee to provide proof of their religion or their religious beliefs? The issue of one’s religion or religious beliefs will only be relevant in the employment context when there is a request for accommodation. Typically…
Rudner Law, Employment / HR Law & Mediation
Delayed termination of employee sometimes weaken position for just cause dismissal
“We cannot continue to tolerate John’s misconduct, and we have decided to dismiss him for cause… once we get through the trade show next month.” Famous last words? Well, they will certainly weaken the position that just cause for dismissal existed in the circumstances. If an employer truly believes that they have just cause for dismissal, the employee should not be permitted to continue working, as that is entirely inconsistent with the notion that the employer could not continue to keep the employee on.
Rudner Law, Employment / HR Law & Mediation
Should employers be entitled to require that their employees have a certain ‘look’?
Recently, I posted a discussion topic in The Canadian HR Law Group on LinkedIn, which I moderate. It turned out to be one of a few recent topics that generated substantial interest and comment. As a result, I thought I would revisit the issue here, and I hope to hear from all of the First Reference readers.
Rudner Law, Employment / HR Law & Mediation
What do employers do when employees provide too much notice of resignation?
An oft-overlooked issue is the amount of notice that employees must give their employer when they leave. According to…
Rudner Law, Employment / HR Law & Mediation
Ongoing evolution of ‘the damages formerly known as Wallace’
As we all know, in the late 1990’s the Supreme Court of Canada held that employers had a duty to act in good faith in the course of terminating the employment relationship. In Wallace v. United Grain Growers, our High Court found that the employer had breached that duty, and the majority held that the remedy for such a breach would be to extend the applicable notice period. Over the following decade, claims for “Wallace damages” became commonplace, to say the least. Unfortunately, many courts seemed more than willing to oblige plaintiffs, finding bad faith in all sorts of circumstances that, while not demonstrative of perfect practice in the course of dismissal, hardly seemed to indicate conduct taken in bad faith.
Rudner Law, Employment / HR Law & Mediation
‘Invitation to harass?’
By now, most of us have heard about a controversial decision of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench in which Justice Robert Dewar sentenced a man found guilty of sexual assault to a two year conditional sentence, allowing him to remain free in the community and avoid any jail time.
Rudner Law, Employment / HR Law & Mediation
Employers’ strategic use of employees’ duty to mitigate
Mitigation of damages in the context of a wrongful dismissal claim is one of those concepts that is often referred to but not well understood.
Rudner Law, Employment / HR Law & Mediation