We are pleased to share a recent Benefits Canada article, “Newfoundland and Labrador arbitrator rules pension grievance can proceed despite late filing, citing ‘culture of acquiescence’,” with quotes from Ajanthana Anandarajah.
In this case, an arbitrator ruled that a pension grievance filed seven years beyond a collective agreement’s time limit could proceed because of the
On November 14, 2022, Bill 26 – Strengthening Post-secondary Institutions and Students Act, 2022, passed second reading in the Ontario legislature. If passed, Bill 26 will be effective on July 1, 2023, and will transform how post-secondary institutions and private career colleges address sexual misconduct by faculty and staff.
Bill 26’s key changes
On November 7, 2019, Bill 124: Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019, received Royal Assent. The Act imposes compensation restraints on certain public sector employees with the aim of giving employers in the broader public sector a measure of predictability as to their future payroll cost increases.
Continue Reading Wage Caps in Store for Ontario’s Broader Public Sector
We’re pleased to share an informative article in which our colleague, Salvador Pasquel Villegas, provides his insight as to how employers in Mexico should approach the new labour relations environment brought on by the recent legislative reform. The article, published by the Society for Human Resource Management, is accessible here.
Companies doing business in Mexico can anticipate that unions will move quickly to legitimize existing collective agreements under a new government-issued protocol. Among other steps, the process entails a vote by covered employees to determine whether they support the agreement. Collective agreements must be legitimized by May 1, 2023 or they will be terminated.
We’re
In a recent decision, Modern Cleaning Concept Inc. v. Comité paritaire de l’entretien d’édifices publics de la région de Québec, the majority of the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) held that a cleaner who had a franchise agreement with a cleaning company was actually an employee, not an independent contractor. This “employee” determination, however, was in the context of a very particular legislative regime, which applied to the specific franchise relationship. Since the cleaner offered his cleaning services in public buildings, he was covered by a collective agreement, the Decree respecting building service employees in the Quebec region (“Decree”), which sets out minimum standards in the workplace (wages, hours of work, overtime, etc.) and is governed by the Act respecting collective agreement decrees (“Act”). With the scope of its provisions being “public order”, the Decree can apply to any contract where an individual is in a relationship determined to be that of “employee” within the meaning of the Act.
Continue Reading Highest Court Rules Quebec Franchisee Was Employee, Not Independent Contractor, Under Provincial Statute
