COVID-19 Legal Resource Page
COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on all aspects of our working lives. Employees had many questions about their workplace rights and entitlements, and our blog posts helped provide some answers.
Now, as businesses across Canada are now slowly reopening, employees have new questions about their rights and entitlements. We can help you find the answers as we enter the first phases of returning to the workplace. We’ll be continuing to publish posts on the topics you need to know about as Ontario continues through its phases of reopening.
Please note that these blog posts are for informational purposes only and are not legal advice. Since the law relating to employee rights and benefits is rapidly changing as a result of the pandemic, we will work to keep this information up to date.
Filter Results
Can a COVID-19 layoff constitute constructive dismissal?
Can a COVID-19 layoff constitute constructive dismissal? Sophia Abbatt considers the OCA’s decision in Hanley Hospitality, the current state of the law, and what it all means for workers.
Regulating stronger personal harassment protections under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act
Erin Sobat’s new article in the Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal examines Ontario’s current workplace harassment laws, and argues that simply requiring employer harassment policies and internal investigations will not stop harassment in workplaces where protection is needed most.
Do employees have a right to privacy about their vaccination status?
Vaccine mandates in workplaces raise a lot of questions for employees. Medical information is given one of the highest levels of protection in the workplace. An employer can’t ask for an employee’s private health information without a good reason. But as Benjamin Piper discusses, this doesn’t mean that an
employer can never ask for health information.
What Emergency Powers Do Governments Have to Respond to COVID-19?
Dan Sheppard’s memo on the emergency powers used to respond to COVID-19 has been updated to June 10, 2021.
Webinar: COVID case law update
In this webinar, Simran Prihar, Ryan Newell, and Gabe Hoogers reviewed the latest workplace law cases involving COVID-19.
Arbitrator: Arbitration not suspended by COVID emergency powers
In a recent win for healthcare workers, a labour arbitrator determined that she had jurisdiction to hear a grievance regarding the exclusion of nurse externs from the bargaining unit. A hospital could not rely on a COVID-19 emergency powers regulation to prevent the hearing from going forward.
