How to strike back against workplace bullying

Posted in: Constructive Dismissal, Damages for Bad Faith, Mental Distress and Personal Injury, Human Rights and Discrimination, Personal Harassment or Bullying

I’m getting bullied by most of my co-workers, and when I’ve told my boss that I don’t appreciate it, he tells me I need to relax and be a good sport about it. To him, it’s just fun and games, but it’s been getting me down so much that I’ve got to the point that I hate going in to work. By Sunday night, I feel myself getting stressed out and dreading the next day. I’ve spoken to my boss three times now, and he hasn’t done anything about it and I think he just thinks I’m a “whiner.” If I go to HR, I’m worried it’ll probably just make things worse. I can’t afford to just quit, but if something doesn’t happen soon I’m going to end up on stress leave, anyway. I understand workplace bullying is considered illegal, but how do I prove it, and what can I realistically do about it?

Worse job may be case of constructive dismissal

Posted in: Constructive Dismissal, Damages for Bad Faith, Mental Distress and Personal Injury, Employment Contracts, Mitigation, Wrongful Dismissal

Are you doing the job you were hired to do? Or are you doing something completely different? Have the terms of your employment agreement been changed without your permission?If so, you may have been constructively dismissed, whether you realize it or not. And you may be entitled to damages. Constructive dismissal occurs where your employer unilaterally implements a fundamental change to the essential terms of your job. When this happens, the job you are performing is significantly different than before, and your employer may therefore be deemed to have dismissed you.

Workplace policies

Posted in: Cause for Dismissal, Damages for Bad Faith, Mental Distress and Personal Injury, Employment Contracts, Human Rights and Discrimination, Non-Competition Agreements, Non-Solicitation Agreements, Severance Packages

Many disputes are rooted in, and later resolved on the basis of, policy. Or at least they should be. This applies in law as much as it does in life: our courts do not always decide employment cases based on what is reasonable or just, but rather, on what makes for the best workplace policy.

Workplace misconduct

Posted in: Cause for Dismissal, Damages for Bad Faith, Mental Distress and Personal Injury, Mitigation

Canadian employers continue to allege cause for dismissal based on any perceived wrong. Although, in cases of serious misconduct such as theft or fraud, they are justified, in most cases they are not. Judges continue to require employers to show that they investigated misconduct, considered any mitigating circumstances and first offered coaching to any employee they wish to fire without notice. Ultimately the punishment must fit the crime.

Workplace Law Basics

Posted in: Damages for Bad Faith, Mental Distress and Personal Injury, Employment Contracts, Human Rights and Discrimination, Personal Harassment or Bullying, Sexual Harassment

Employment Law Basics: This is as true in law as it is in life. Here is a sampling of some of the questions I received this week and the cautionary advice I provided to those employees.

Tribunals cause for Employers concern

Posted in: Damages for Bad Faith, Mental Distress and Personal Injury, Human Rights and Discrimination, Wrongful Dismissal

Canadian employers have historically taken an ignorant view of human rights tribunals and their often extraordinary decisions. But that may be quickly changing. Because of sweeping changes to human rights legislation and left-leaning adjudicators directed to interpret remedial legislation, such as human rights laws, in a broad and inclusive manner, employers should be very concerned. Here are some of the reasons why.

The Rocky Road to Dismissal – Employees must combat warning signs

Posted in: Cause for Dismissal, Damages for Bad Faith, Mental Distress and Personal Injury, Employment Contracts, Severance Packages, Workplace Investigations, Wrongful Dismissal

With no legal entitlement to continued employment, Canadian employees decry that the law of dismissal favours their employer. Employers, however, don’t have a magic bullet for liberating themselves from unsatisfactory employees; most mistakes are made by the employees themselves.

Punitive damages

Posted in: Damages for Bad Faith, Mental Distress and Personal Injury

In the often twisted world of Canadian workplace law, both employers and employees tend to exaggerate facts in an effort to improve their own cases. Whether it’s a deliberate strategy or a simple white lie, our courts are increasingly signalling their disdain when stories without the conviction of truth find their way to trial. A recent decision from British Columbia reminds us all that honesty remains the best policy.

Permanent Illness can put your career at risk

Posted in: Cause for Dismissal, Damages for Bad Faith, Mental Distress and Personal Injury, Human Rights and Discrimination, Severance Packages, Wrongful Dismissal

Employers are entitled to expect their employees to show up for work. Without a valid reason, employees who don’t show up are subject to dismissal without pay. Temporary illness, however, usually offers that valid reason. But what of the employee who’s disability renders her unlikely to ever return to her job? As Terry Ann Wilmot recently learned, illness is not always a shield from dismissal.

Performance Improvement Plans

Posted in: Cause for Dismissal, Damages for Bad Faith, Mental Distress and Personal Injury, Reasonable Notice, Resignation, Severance Packages

Sometimes employees too easily confuse who gets to call the legal shots. Believing that their job is an entitlement, some workers try to take the law into their own hands. They are often mistaken. This is the tale of one employee who learned this lesson the hard way.