The Blog

Workplaces are dynamic and workplace policies must evolve. However, effectively amending a workplace policy so that it is enforceable in court is not as straightforward as one might think. Changes to company policies can affect employee rights, benefits, or entitlements. For those changes to become enforceable elements of employment contracts, employers may have to provide their employees with consideration.

Emotion is a powerful driver of lawsuits. Estate litigation is especially prone to devolve into a forum for family infighting, with devastating consequences. In Holowaychuk v Lopushinsky, 2016 ABCA 102, the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld an important decision regarding costs in such emotion-driven cases, allowing full indemnity costs against the unsuccessful litigant.

Employers sometimes require their employees to sign restrictive covenants, prohibiting competition or solicitation of clients after the termination of employment. Such restraints can make it difficult for employees to secure alternative work. The question often arises: How do restrictive covenants affect an employee’s entitlement to notice of termination? Recent case law from Alberta and Ontario confirms the presence of non-competition and non-solicitation covenants sometimes justifies lengthened notice periods, even if the covenants eventually prove unenforceable.