Job Protected Leaves and Covid-19

Ravenlaw gratefully acknowledges the contribution of this post by summer student Emily McBain-Ashfield. Asked to work but feeling ill? Your job is protected As some regions in Ontario enter Phase 2 of re-opening, more people will be asked to return to work. If you are one of those people being asked to return to work, you may be wondering: what will happen to my job if I feel sick, but... Read More

Shaving Your COVID-19 Beard ― Can Your Employer Make You Do It?

Men who grew a beard during the pandemic while working from home or out of work may be asked to shave it off when they re-enter the workplace. Whether your boss can force you to shave your facial hair depends on the type of work you do, your personal circumstances, and, in many instances, whether you are unionized. Is your employer concerned about safety or appearance? Employers have policies against... Read More

Uber Can’t Unfairly Deny Workers Access to Canadian Justice

That doesn’t seem like a shocking proposition, but Uber fought up to the Supreme Court of Canada to argue Canadian courts had no jurisdiction to determine whether it had acted improperly. The Supreme Court of Canada said Uber was wrong. Now a major class action on behalf of drivers can go ahead. Uber thought it had covered itself when it required drivers to agree that they had to make any... Read More

An Employee’s Guide to Ontario’s COVID-19 Shutdown

The Ontario Government announced its intention to expand the closure of all “non-essential” businesses on April 3, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement included plans to extend the shutdown to April 17, 2020 and to include new workplaces on the list of businesses that must be temporarily closed. But despite the media attention to this announcement, details of what exactly the shutdown means for employees have been... Read More

RavenLaw Appears Before Supreme Court on Charter Challenge

On December 12, 2019, RavenLaw appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada to argue in support of a Charter challenge to portions of the RCMP pension plan, which have been applied to prevent employees from buying back periods of service during which they had temporarily reduced hours of work for childcare reasons. RavenLaw appeared on behalf of the intervener, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, to argue that the pension... Read More

The Canada Emergency Response Benefit – Who Can and Who Cannot Apply

The Government of Canada has started accepting applications for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) this week, as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. While this benefit is going to provide crucial support to many who have lost income due to the pandemic, there are lingering questions about who has been excluded from the benefit, and whether the Government will provide further support to those who have... Read More

Pre-Existing Medical Conditions and Long-Term Disability Entitlement

If you have recently started a new job, you may be surprised to learn that your employer’s insurance plan might not cover long-term disability entitlement for people with pre-existing medical conditions. You may be even more surprised to learn that human rights legislation allows for an employer to exclude some people with pre-existing conditions from disability insurance plans. Overview Canada has both federal and provincial human rights legislation prohibiting discrimination... Read More

Is COVID-19 a Workplace Injury? Applying for WSIB benefits

Workers infected with COVID-19 “out of and in the course of” their employment are entitled to benefits under the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, including for lost wages, healthcare costs and permanent impairments arising from the disease. If a worker contracted COVID-19 outside of work, they will not be eligible for such benefits. Worker’s compensation benefits are only available to workers who have symptoms of COVID-19, according to... Read More

Thurston v Ontario (Children’s Lawyer): Clarification on the Legal Test for “Dependent Contractor” Status

Workers are typically thought of as either “employees” or “independent contractors”. Employers seek to classify their workforce as “contractors” to avoid paying for mandatory benefits under the Employment Standards Act (ESA), among other things, which only protects employees as defined under the ESA. However, Canadian courts recognize an intermediate position where, although the worker is not an employee, they are still economically dependent on one contract. These so-called “dependent contractors”... Read More

UPDATE – Expanded CERB still does not go far enough

Since our post on the introduction of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) (which you can read here), the federal government has announced changes to the program to address some of the identified gaps in eligibility. Based on these most recent changes, many more individuals should qualify to receive the CERB. This post will outline who is now eligible, and who is still left out, of this important benefit. What... Read More