Faraz Kourangi discussedthe importance of ensuring that employment contracts clearly authorize temporary layoffs, cautioning that without such contractual language and genuine employee consent, employers risk facing constructive dismissal claims under common law.
See an excerpt below:
Worker sues for constructive dismissal after temporary layoff
Emergency leave regulation 'cannot override common law rights unless the statute clearly permits it': lawyer
"Employers cannot impose temporary layoffs unless the employee has explicitly agreed to that possibility in the employment contract – just simply notifying an employee that they are laid off, even temporarily, doesn't constitute consent and may result in a successful constructive dismissal claim under common law."
So says employment lawyer Faraz Kourangi of Williams HR Law in the Greater Toronto Area, after an Ontario court found that an employer didn't have the contractual right to temporarily lay off a worker during the pandemic.
Grenville Management is a Markham, Ont.-based company that sells, leases, and services office printers, scanners, and photocopiers. Its predecessor company hired the worker in 2006 to be a service tech and he later became an information technology (IT) specialist.An employer had just cause to dismiss a worker who was caught working another job while receiving short-term disability benefits, an Ontario arbitrator has ruled.
Read more via Canadian HR Reporter.
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