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

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

Morgan Rowe Presents Disability Rights Workshop

On March 4, 2020, Morgan Rowe presented a workshop on human rights law, worker’s rights, and how these two sets of rights can be used to help individuals with disabilities challenge barriers in employment. The workshop was hosted by CUPE Local 2626. Read More