The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development has introduced new guidelines for determining whether a remote employee’s home office amounts to a permanent establishment that attracts tax for a foreign employer. The guidelines formulate a two-part test for use in determining whether a permanent establishment exists. The tests consist of a temporal threshold and an […]
The British Columbia Supreme Court has ruled employers don’t necessarily have an unfettered right to dictate the terms of a repurchase of shares held by former employees under a stock option plan. “The message is that even when discretion is granted under the terms of a plan, that discretion is not necessarily unlimited, and it’s […]
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has ruled an employers’ conduct that creates mere emotional discomfort for employees during the accommodation process may not amount to discrimination. “What emerges from the Cillis v. Hamilton decision is an objective standard requiring employers to act reasonably, not perfectly,” says Jeff Goodman, a commercial employment law partner at […]
The growing adoption of prohibitions against demanding sick notes to substantiate short-term absences, related to the health of employees or their immediate families, is among the emerging trends that are challenging employers in 2026. In November, British Columbia joined Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador in imposing […]
With travel to the U.S. becoming anxious, if not risky, for many Canadians, employers are facing the prospect of employees refusing to travel south of the border. But can employers require employees to do so, and do employees have a basis on which to refuse? “My advice to employers is not to assume that employees […]
Nova Scotia’s government is formally recognizing workplace harassment as a health and safety issue with the introduction of new regulations to its Occupational Health and Safety Act. “All employers in Nova Scotia have an obligation to ensure workers’ health and safety — and that obligation now specifically includes a duty to address workplace harassment and […]
An Ontario arbitrator has confirmed the validity of the long-term disability exception to the mandatory retirement rule. When Ontario eliminated mandatory retirement in 2006, the legislation provided an exception for insured employment benefit plans to maintain a cutoff based on age. “This was intended to avoid destabilizing existing insurance plans while still permitting parties to […]
The Human Rights Tribunal of Alberta has ruled that termination of employment on the day an employee returns from a year-long mental-health leave doesn’t, in and of itself, support a discrimination complaint. “In this case, the employer had valid grounds for termination before the medical leave started, and the fact that the complainant’s case had […]
In a recent case, the Supreme Court of Canada is being asked to consider a question that has long divided courts and vexed employers: are agreements that forfeit employees’ unvested equity-based compensation on termination enforceable, even if the vesting is scheduled to occur during the reasonable notice period? “The issue is an important one because […]
In order to avoid exposure to unnecessary and expensive litigation and unforeseen liabilities, it’s important for employers to determine which jurisdiction’s rules apply when terminating an employee in a remote-working arrangement, according to several employment lawyers. “Most employment relationships in Canada are governed by local provincial or territorial law, with the remaining governed by federal […]