On May 12, 2022, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its long-awaited decision in a case concerning whether an Ontario regulation precludes an employee who was laid off during the pandemic from claiming constructive dismissal at common law.
Colorado has been building a new state-run Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program pursuant to a law enacted in 2020, and recently published a series of guidance documents and regulations regarding FAMLI.
Among a number of new bills affecting Colorado employers, perhaps none was as closely watched as HB 22-1317, which provides substantial changes to noncompete and nonsolicitation agreements in the state.
In a recent decision, the British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld a determination that three taxi drivers were employees and not independent contractors for purposes of the province’s Employment Standards Act.
On April 29, 2022, organized labor achieved a long-sought political objective when the Connecticut House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 163, “An Act Protecting Employee Freedom of Speech and Conscience.”
As we watch to see what happens with additional pending legislation in 2022, this post identifies states that recently adopted laws intended to curtail workplace vaccine mandates by private employers.
As we enter the third year of the global COVID-19 pandemic, many U.S. businesses are implementing long-delayed return-to-office plans and hoping to establish a new equilibrium.
Since late fall 2021, we have seen a steady flow of arbitration awards emerge in Ontario and British Columbia that consider issues relating to mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies in the unionized workplace.
An arbitrator recently decided that the mandatory vaccination policy of BC Hydro was reasonably necessary to justify the significant intrusion on its employees’ bodily integrity and medical privacy - but the policy's discipline aspect was unreasonable.