Update to a bizarre story: The Red Deer judge who put a defence lawyer in jail after the two had a spat has offered an apology to the lawyer: https://edmontonjournal.com/news/crime/red-deer-lawyer-jailing-judge-apology

Perusing the new applications report published by the Alberta Labour Relations Board each Monday, as I always do, I noticed an application for an employee to redirect union dues for religious reasons (GE-09297-APP-00001). I don’t think I’ve ever seen an application like that under s. 29(2) of the Labour Relations Code on the new applications report before today.

Employees can be denied employment insurance benefits if they lose their employment due to misconduct. In this context, misconduct just means that the employee willfully/consciously/knowingly/deliberately committed a violation or omission related to an employment rule knowing it could lead to termination. When challenging a decision to deny benefits on this basis, many employees are surprised to learn that they cannot challenge the validity of the employment rule or policy and whether they were wrongfully dismissed or their human rights were violated is outside the mandate of the Social Security Tribunal. That was the situation for the appellant in this case who sought to challenge his denial of employment insurance benefits on the basis that he could not comply with his employer’s vaccination policy for religious reasons. His appeal was dismissed by the Social Security Tribunal – General Division and the Social Security Tribunal – Appeal Division denied him leave to appeal. The Federal Court dismissed his judicial review application in large part because he didn’t raise Charter issues at the SST level and his arguments were aimed at the validity of the employer’s policy rather than whether what he did constituted misconduct: Sturgeon v. Canada (Attorney General), 2024 FC 1888 (CanLII)

Sofina Foods Inc. is facing 26 charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act after one of its workers was trapped in a smokehouse and burned to death https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/sofina-food-worker-death-1.7392464

A recent Occupational Health and Safety Appeal Board decision serves as a good example of the standard of review applicable to OHS Officer’s and investigations into Disciplinary Action Complaints (“DAC”). Here, a temporary foreign worker in a supervisory role at Tim Horton’s was terminated two weeks after his arrival in Canada. Prior to his dismissal, he expressed concerns about how gross it was to clean the bathroom at the restaurant. The employee filed a CAC after his termination which was dismissed by the OHS Officer following investigation. The Officer found that the occurred during his probationary period and was due to unsatisfactory performance and therefore dismissed the DAC. The employee appealed and, on preliminary review, the Appeal Body upheld the dismissal. The decision of the Officer is afforded significant deference and reviewed on the standard of reasonableness. The Appeal Body emphasized that it is not the role of the OHS Officer to assess whether the employer had just cause for termination and that mere disagreement with the Officer’s decision is not grounds for appeal. The decision of the Officer was reasonable: Cardozo v 1831169 Alberta Ltd. operating as Tim Hortons, 2024 ABOHSAB 20 (CanLII)

An important read from Dr. Gideon Christian highlighting some troubling issues with the race and the Law Society of Alberta’s hearing of the complaint against Kelechi Madu, KC: https://www.slaw.ca/2024/11/28/the-law-society-of-alberta-trial-of-minister-madu-what-has-race-got-to-do-with-it/

Canada Post has started laying off some employees out on strike. Canada Post says business conditions have changed and the terms of the most recent collective agreement do not apply. CUPW says it’s just a scare tactic and the Canada Labour Code prohibits employers from terminating employees who participate in a lawful strike: https://www.thestar.com/business/canada-post-confirms-it-is-laying-off-striking-workers-union-accuses-management-of-scare-tactic/article_0ff6ffc8-adab-11ef-baa7-cfd8753fd127.html

Some guy wrote about Alberta’s Bill 33 and Bill 34 recently.

Roxanne Davis wrote about the pros and cons of private arbitration to settle employment disputes.