2019 In Review: A Look Back At The Top Cases And Key Legislative Changes That Impacted Your Workplace

2019 was a tumultuous year for employers with significant changes to workplace legislation both provincially and federally and a number of noteworthy decisions. Throughout the year, CCP has kept you up-to-date on these developments through our Employers' Edge blog and our Lawyers for Employers podcast. We are now happy to provide a recap of our top cases and legislative changes of the past year, along with links to our original blogs. Enjoy!

Legislative Changes

Bill 66 - Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act, 2019: Bill 66 is an omnibus bill that amended a number of statutes, which included changes to the excess hour agreements and overtime averaging agreements provisions under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA), and significant changes to the construction industry provisions under the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (LRA). Bill 124 - Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019: Bill 124 introduced a 1% cap on public sector wage increases, annually, for a 3 year moderation period that affect both unionized and non-unionized employers. Bill C-86 - the Budget Implementation Act, 2018: the sweeping changes made to Part III of the Canada Labour Code came into effect on September 1, 2019. The most notable amendments include changes to the hours of work, vacation, holiday, leaves of absence, termination, equal pay for equal work, and temporary help agency provisions. The WSIB established an operational policy setting out guidelines for entitlement to, review of, and payment for medical cannabis under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 (the Act), which came into effect on March 1, 2019. This policy outlined a number of important guidelines for the use of medical cannabis, including categories of persons for who use of medical cannabis was not recommended, designated conditions for which there is evidence of therapeutic efficiency for medical cannabis, entitlement criteria for medical cannabis, and for a review of cannabis entitlement. As of October 17, 2019, the production and sale of edible cannabis, cannabis extracts and cannabis topicals became legal. Top Labour and Employment Cases of 2019: Heller v Uber Technologies Inc., 2019 ONCA 1: The Court of Appeal determined that Uber's arbitration clause, which precluded drivers from accessing the Ontario courts by requiring disputes to be addressed through arbitration in the Netherlands, was not binding because it had the effect of illegally outsourcing an employment standard. The Court of Appeal remarked that the arbitration clause sought to take advantage of the significant disparity in bargaining power and financial means between Uber and...