Labour Law

[valleyboy]

It came from a news report on CBC so think what you may but the "expert" says that unless you work under some kind of contract that deals specifically with lay offs, all unions do and possibly non union companies as well, I worked for a small non union company and there was a signed agreement(contract) for terms of employment.
He stated that all other employers (about 90%)) can not legally lay off and could expose themselves to being sued for wrongful dismal which could cost them up to a year's salary. Sticky wicket, what! It will certainly change the way people are hired and all will be working under contracts in the future. I wouldn't be surprised that small nonunion companies will be implementing contract immediately and take the hit for the salaries paid to wait out the time requirement.

Pretty interesting stuff. I certainly would like to see if this holds true under federal labour laws.

[dialdriver]

I believe it is temporary layoffs that are illegal for non union workers, not the usual layoffs.

[valleyboy]

Obviously one should seek legal advice on anything like this and true to form CBC and the news media report to sensationalise at the expense of accuracy. I don't a lot of news these days but I do see an excessive amount of opinion and speculation. No wonder people are paranoid.

[Capt. Underpants]

Temporary layoffs allow the employer to defer paying any vacation and severance amounts due to the employees. Without a contract or a collective bargaining agreement in place, the company must "make the employee whole" when then want to let them go - even if only temporarily.

[undashflyer]

Hey there,

So, I just asked my partner this as he's a corporate lawyer and deals with this quite often.

Any employer can legally lay off staff if there is a lack of work. Regardless as to whether they are unionized or not.

A non-unionized employee can only be on layoff status for 13 weeks. Following that, the employee must be brought back or, if the lack of work remains and the employee cannot be brought back, severance must be given to the employee upon them being let go permanently. Severance is paid based on government standards and length of service.

Union contracts may provide alternate provisions as to work protection. Such as recall rights for layoffs as noted in a CBA.

[Heliian]

The Laws are still there to be researched, go with the CLC.

Then you contract may have something about it too.

It all depends on the size of the company and how many employees are getting laid off.

HOWEVER, by declaring a "state of emergency", funds are available for layoffs and retention but people can also be layed off more quickly.