Labour & Employment Law

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  1. What’s the difference between labour law and employment law?
    “Employment Law” involves the legal rights and obligations which regulate all aspects of the workplace relationships between employers and employees, including hiring, firing, contractual agreements, workers’ compensation, health and safety, benefits, human rights and employment standards. The term is generally used in connection with non-union jobs.

    “Labour law” is generally focused on those employees represented by organized labour, and the three main aspects of: employer/employee relations, employer/union relations and employee member/union relations.

    The rights of employees and employers in a labour law context are generally set out in collective agreements (contracts between the parties) and legislation which specifically pertains to organized labour (e.g. Labour Relations Act).

    The rights of non-union employees are generally determined by the common law, and statutes of general application to employees (e.g. Human Rights Act).

  2. I’ve just been fired for no good reason. What should I do?
    First, you need to determine if it is a union or a non-union job. If a union position, your remedy lies in your collective agreement, with your union and, on occasion, with the Labour Relations Board. If it is a non-union job, there are different issues depending on the facts.

    You can ask the Employment Standards Branch of Alberta to investigate if you believe you are owed back wages or benefits. They also investigate when you allege you were fired without cause and are owed the basic statutory notice (a sliding scale, which ends at 8 weeks’ notice after 10 years employment or more).

    If you believe the firing is due to a human rights issue (e.g. discrimination on a prohibited ground—race, physical or medical disability, sexual harassment etc.), Alberta Human Rights can investigate, and it has broad powers to award reinstatement, limited damages etc.

    You can also sue in the Small Claims Court for up to $25,000, and the process is designed to be “user-friendly” for citizens (although a party can hire a lawyer to represent them).

    Further, you can hire a lawyer to advise you on whether or not a firing “for cause” has been made out, and, if not, what appropriate notice should be. Thereafter, the lawyer generally negotiates with the other side in an effort to resolve the matter without the necessity of a court action.

  3. I’ve been discriminated against at work. What should I do?
    Our first advice is to try and resolve the matter internally through the “chain of command” if possible. Once discrimination is alleged, it can create difficulties in the workplace for everyone concerned. A concerned and vigilant employer will want to know about any alleged discrimination, and will want an opportunity to deal effectively and quickly with it.

    Another option for the employee is to involve Alberta Human Rights, either immediately or if attempts to solve the problem internally fail.This entity has both an investigative branch and a hearings branch.

    As well, an employee can retain a lawyer if they believe that one is needed either to help protect their interests in the workplace, or to deal with the employment relationship if it comes to an end.

  4. What is “reasonable notice”?
    No job is for life. Any employer can fire any employee (subject to any collective agreement or other agreement in place) if they give adequate prior notice to the employee.

    Employment Standards legislation sets a minimum amount of reasonable notice. It is a sliding scale which starts at 1 week if employed between 3 months and 2 years and ends at 8 weeks if employed more than 10 years. Usually, what you would get at common law is a higher amount.

    At common law, a court looks at a series of factors to determine reasonable notice. It is an art more than a science and court awards vary greatly. The factors looked at include: age, education, nature of position, length of service, conduct of employer, and whether or not you were asked to apply for the job or applied yourself.

    You can be given “working notice” (far less popular), which means you still do your job but are under advisement that it will be disappearing in the future, or a monetary amount “in lieu of notice”, either paid monthly until you find other work, or paid as a lump sum (the most popular).

    Sometimes, you are unsure whether or not you have actually been dismissed from your position. This appears most commonly on reorganizations or mergers, when your current job disappears or changes and you are asked to “move” to another position. An employer can find that the job has changed  enough (through duties, perks, salary, reporting relationships, etc.) as to be found to be “constructively dismissed”by the employer. Damages for wrongful dismissal can then be sought. However, an employee has to be careful that they do not make a mistake and quit their job, only to have a court later find that the duties were not that drastically changed.