What a Non-Disparagement Clause Really Means

If you’ve settled, or are in the process of settling, a legal case against your employer, you may have been asked to agree to what lawyers call a “non-disparagement clause”. These clauses come in many different forms but at their core, they all ask the individual employee to agree, going forward, not to “disparage” their employer or former employer. In fact, some go further and also prohibit individuals from disparaging... Read More

Can I get workers’ compensation for an injury while working from home?

News publications have officially declared the “death of the office”, as most of us adjust to the realities of working from home. While working from home, often referred to as telework or telecommuting, had been steadily increasing in recent years, the amount of people working from home has obviously exploded in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With unprecedented numbers of employees working from somewhere other than their employer’s physical premises,... Read More

Tribunal Confirms Requirement to Appoint Independent Investigator in Workplace Violence Complaints

A federal employer is required to appoint a competent person to investigate a workplace violence complaint, even if it believes the allegations in the complaint do not relate to or amount to workplace violence, according to a recent decision the Occupational Health and Safety Tribunal of Canada. In this case, the worker had suffered through an accommodation process that he felt was inadequate. He believed that representatives of the employer,... Read More

RavenLaw is proud to welcome Sean McGee and Alison McEwen

RavenLaw is proud to welcome two new lawyers to our team: Sean McGee and Alison McEwen. Sean practises in the areas of Labour Law, Employment Law, and Litigation. He represents unions across Canada, with a focus on Ottawa, Eastern Ontario, and Toronto. For more information about Sean, visit: https://ravenlaw.com/people/sean-mcgee. Alison practices in the areas of Labour Law, Employment Law, and Litigation. She also represents unions across Canada, with a focus... Read More

Labour Adjudicator Rules Cohabitation Not Required for Spousal Relocation Leave

A couple can be living in a conjugal relationship even if they are living in different cities, according to a recent Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board decision. The Board found that the Department of Citizenship and Immigration was wrong to deny an Ottawa-based employee’s request for spousal relocation leave to join his partner in Vancouver, because the couple had not lived under the same roof for at... Read More

Holiday Hours

Ravenlaw Holiday Hours Please note our office will be closed from December 23, 2019 until January 1, 2020. We will reopen for regular business hours on Thursday, January 2, 2020 at 8:30 am. Warmest wishes for a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year. 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