In late December of last year the Court of Appeal recognized the existence of the dependent contractor in the case of McKee v. Reid’s Heritage Homes Ltd. In this case, the plaintiff was an in-house sales agent for Reid’s Heritage Homes. Reid’s is a new home builder that originally retained the services of McKee to sell new homes in the Guelph area. McKee would conduct the sales of the new homes within model homes supplied by Reid. She began her work with Reid in around 1987 and she was paid through her own registered corporation. Over the years she became
TO FINISH READING THIS ARTICLE PLEASE CLICK HERE →I always counsel employers that it is best to help employees with their job search if employers need to terminate them without cause. The reason for this is an employment agreement is a contract. Employment law isn’t simply govern by legislation by it is govern by common-law, and contract law is made up of a century of common-law. If the contract is severed, damages must paid. Damages are in the form of wrongful dismissal damage, which is essentially payment for breach of contract. Therefore, if there is a breach of contract than damages must be paid and mitigation is extremely
TO FINISH READING THIS ARTICLE PLEASE CLICK HERE →Of review of the November 2009 Court of Appeal decision of Brien v. Niagara Motors Ltd is an interesting read. In this case the appellant employer raised three grounds of appeal from a wrongful dismissal decision which awarded 24 months severance plus Wallace (for bad faith) damages of two months. Firstly, the employer argued to the Court of Appeal that the trial judge erred in treating the respondent employee as a 23-year employee even though there was a two-year gap in her employment after 6 years when she left to have her second child. The employee had been invited back
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Payment of Wages under the Ontario Employment Standards Act
I am often asked simple questions by small businesses in the community and I am surprised that the majority of the small business owners I talk to do not know the first thing about employment standards. If you hire employees you need to at least be aware of the minimums of what is required for you to know as a business owner. Part V, Sections 11 to 14 of the Ontario Employment Standards Act deals with the payment of wages. The Act indicates that as an employer you must establish a recurring pay period and a recurring pay day for