BC Workplace Blog

The recent BC Supreme Court decision of Okano v. Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, 2022 BCSC 881, is a reminder to terminated employees that they must take reasonable steps to find new employment. In this decision, the judge found that the terminated employee, Frances Okano, who had been with her employer for almost thirty-five years, did not take reasonable steps to secure a new job, and held that a reduction in the period of notice of three months was warranted for failing to mitigate.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the landscape of our the British Columbian economy and the workforce in a variety of ways. As we enter Phase 4 of BC’s Restart Plan can an employer mandate that their workers be vaccinated? In a recent decision BC Hydro and Power Authority v International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 258, 2022 CanLII 25764 (BC LA), it appears that may be the case. However, the purpose of the employer and whether their services are considered to be essential services, as well as the competing interests of the opposing parties, seems to have been key considerations taken into account by the arbitrator.

Is it appropriate to make surreptitious recordings in the workplace, so long as one party to the conversation consents? According to a recent BC Supreme Court decision, the answer is “No”. In Shalagin v. Mercer Celgar Limited Partnership, 2022 BCSC 112, the Court found that Mr. Shalagin’s conduct in surreptitiously recording his colleagues constitutes just cause given the effect of the relationship of trust. The employee knew his actions were wrong, if not legally, at least ethically.

“Layoff” is a commonly misunderstood term. A layoff occurs when an employee’s work is reduced by 50% or more of their previous hours but the employer expects to recall that employee in the future.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this procedure was often used only in seasonal or other cyclical industries, however, as the business community faced the impacts of COVID-19 and the provincial government broadened the applicable rules, it became more widely used. Now, as businesses have reopened only to face closures again, a refresher on the current rules is key.

Our Employment & Human Rights Lawyers have been fielding many questions from clients regarding the recent announcement by the provincial government that starting in January, employers will be required to provide 5 paid sick days to BC employees.

The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (“CERB”) was introduced by the federal government in response to the pandemic in 2020. The program provides financial support to Canadians impacted directly by COVID-19. Terminated employees frequently ask whether these CERB payments are deductible from wrongful dismissal damages. In this post, we reviewed two recent BC Supreme Court decisions where the Court found that the payments were deductible, in particular, the CERB payments “raise a compensating advantage” issue. If the CERB payments were not deducted, the plaintiff would be in a better position than he/she would have been if there had been no breach of the employment contract.

The practice of adopting vaccine mandates for employees in BC has advanced considerably from where we were even a couple of months ago. While there have been no changes in the applicable legislation (for example, no amendments to the BC Employment Standards Act, the BC Human Rights Code or the Workers Compensation Act to explicitly permit employer vaccine mandates), a large number of employers have now moved forward with implementing a vaccine mandate.

Workplaces are recognizing more than ever that our gender is not the same as the sex assigned to us at birth. This refreshing shift in realization has brought about an increase in personal pronouns being added by professionals to email signatures and/or social media bios, leadership sharing their views on the importance of language in our workplace, and encouragement of more visible pronoun use within our organizations.

BC employers and employees should take note that BC has raised its minimum wage from $14.60 per hour to $15.20 as of June 1, 2021, making the province’s base rate the second highest in the country. This change also increased the minimum wage for liquor servers, who were previously excluded from the general minimum wage.

Under what circumstances can a worker refuse to wear a mask in the workplace for religious reasons? Can the absence of faith in the efficacy of masks be the basis of a religious practice protected by human rights legislation? This month, we take a look at a recent BC Human Rights Tribunal ruling on this very issue.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the Canadian economy and has resulted in job loss and precarious employment across various sectors. It is yet to be seen however if and how these changes will affect an employee’s entitlement to reasonable notice following a without cause dismissal. In this article, we review recent court decisions addressing the impact of COVID-19 on wrongful dismissal damages.

The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines across the country has brought with it both the hope of return to normalcy, as well as concerns about infringement of privacy and human rights through mandatory vaccination in the workplace. How will vaccinations impact the workplace? Can employers implement mandatory vaccination policies in the workplace? In this blog post, we analyze the existing law on mandatory vaccination and what we anticipate will be permitted in the workplace with respect to the COVID-19 vaccine.