Let’s face it, we are all addicted to our phones. Some of us have jobs where our phones are required to be locked up in a locker for the day and we only have access to them on breaks. As a desk worker – who does not have to lock up her phone – I can only imagine the agony!  Time spent on a personal device can interfere with work and productivity. Ever fall into…

If you’ve been terminated from your job and spoken to an employment lawyer you’ve probably heard the word “mitigation” thrown around. In this post, we will talk about mitigation, what it is and why it matters to you and your case.  The Duty to Mitigate The duty to mitigate is a legal concept that basically means you’ve got to take reasonable steps to stop your own bleeding. What that bleeding looks like will depend on…

We wrote about the Dawe v. Equitable Life Insurance Company, 2018 ONSC 3130 back in January. Check out that post here.  The Dawe case was notable because the judge in that case awarded Mr. Dawe a notice period of 30 months. The judge also made the comment that he would have awarded Mr. Dawe 36 months of notice, but stopped at 30 because that was what Mr. Dawe had asked for in his Statement…

We are super excited to announce that once again, we have been named Legal Influencers for Employment Law in the Lexology Content Marketing Awards for Q2 of 2019! We won this award in Q4 of 2018 – check out our post on that here – and are stoked that our blogging success is having staying power. I mean it’s 2019, what’s cooler than being named an #influencer?!  This particular award recognized our blog for…

A labour arbitration decision out of Nova Scotia has got us thinking about what will qualify as addiction and justify accommodation in the work setting.  In Unifor, Local 2215 v IMP Group Ltd (Aerospace Division) (AB Grievance), [2019] NSLAA No 4, Arbitrator Richardson determined that an employee’s on the job masturbation was not justified by his reported sex addiction and upheld the employer’s decision to terminate.   Sex Addiction The employee in question carried out…

As our population becomes more technology dependent and urbanized, we are increasingly adopting more sedentary lifestyles than our ancestors.  One of the consequences of using our bodies less and our brains more is a host of negative health outcomes, including musculoskeletal issues from being hunched over screens for most of our waking lives.  Thankfully, a new generation of entrepreneurial chiropractors and physiotherapists have sprung up across our cities to help teach us to sit…

While we like to help businesses set up their employment relationships from day one, more often than not we come in to help a little later. In many typical workplaces, some employees have written contracts or offer letters, of varying levels of quality, and some don’t have any sort of written contract at all.  Why Have a Written Contract? Employment relationships are governed by certain terms regardless of whether or not there is a written…