Employment & labour law
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High bar for use of biometric systems maintained by Quebec privacy regulator
Canada’s largest printer was ordered to cease using facial recognition technology to monitor access to its facilities and to destroy all biometric information it previously collected by Quebec’s privacy watchdog in a decision that serves as a stark reminder that there is a high legal threshold for using biometric systems in the province, according to… Continue reading
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Labour concerned about new bill that curbs and limit strikes
The Quebec government tabled a bill that gives it sweeping new powers to curb and limit strikes or lockouts by broadening the notion of essential services and granting the labour minister the power to refer labour disputes to an arbitrator, proposals that critics have derided as nothing less than a direct frontal attack on the… Continue reading
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Quebec law limits employers to request medical notes
About one-third of working Canadians were asked by their employers to produce a sick note for a short-term absence at least once in the last year. That will largely be a thing of the past. Continue reading
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Method used to conduct pay equity audit is invalid, rules Labour Tribunal
A method used to estimate wage differentials during pay equity evaluations cannot be validly used as it contravenes the Quebec Pay Equity Act, ruled the Administrative Labour Tribunal in a decision widely expected by labour lawyers to have a significant impact on estimating and assessing public sector pay equity. Continue reading
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McGill law professors on strike
McGill law professors, asserting that the university is negotiating in bad faith, began an unlimited strike two days ago, demanding better pay and working conditions, a halt towards the growing inclination towards centralization at the university, and the safeguarding of collegial governance at the faculty level. Continue reading
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Employers’ obligation to protect psychological well-being of workers expanded by Quebec bill
The Quebec government, in an initiative welcomed by business and labour, is in the final stages of passing legislation that aims to further prevent and fight psychological harassment and sexual violence in the workplace by adding legal presumptions to make it easier to prove an employment injury or illness stemmed from violence at the hands… Continue reading
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McGill law professors stage one-day strike to spur productive negotiations
A newly certified bargaining unit representing McGill law professors staged a one-day strike after negotiations with the university administration over its first collective agreement stalled, the first time since the university’s founding two hundred years ago that professors erected picket lines on campus. Continue reading
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Crown prosecutors taking Quebec government to court in wage dispute
Quebec Crown prosecutors, “dismayed and insulted” by the Quebec government’s “bad faith” during negotiations, filed a motion before Quebec Superior Court to invalidate a government decision that affects their working conditions. Continue reading
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New trend in case law emerges dealing with work-related psychological trauma
A new trend in case law dealing with work-related psychological trauma has emerged over the past year that both clarifies the test dealing with workplace mental injury and will likely lighten the burden for employees to make their case, according to legal pundits. Continue reading
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Appeal Court underlines employers do not have a free pass to ask questions to potential employees
A prospective police officer who alleged that the Quebec provincial police force withdrew its pre-employment offer because he has Tourette Syndrome was rebuffed by the Quebec Court of Appeal after it found instead that he was not forthright and did not act in good faith during the hiring process. Continue reading