Edmonton Employment Law

A lot of issues recently have arisen surrounding investigation processes. From arguments hinging on inadequacy of an investigation or investigative tunnel-vision , to cases where employers fail to follow the recommendations of the investigator without basis , or questions about the handling of the allegations against Justice Russell Brown . To Suspend, or Not to Suspend? While investigating allegations of misconduct, it's important to treat the allegations as unproven  until and unless they are established. But at the same time, there are legitimate interests to protect in the mean time, which might require that the respondent be removed from their role on a temporary basis. These suspensions are supposed to be  administrative  in nature and not punitive ; when the person is in a role where they're paid, they should continue to get paid as normal through the suspension. (In most non-union employment roles, there's no power to suspend on an unpaid basis anyways, and you r...

 A few months ago, I posted a primer on the employer's duty to accommodate . Let's step it back a bit further and get even more basic, and talk about what kinds of actions human rights legislation protects against - and what kinds of action it DOESN'T protect against. While we talk about it generally as protecting against 'discrimination', it's more accurate to say that it protects against discrimination on the basis of prohibited grounds , and within specified social contexts . There's some variance on both the prohibited grounds and social contexts, from Province to Province. Prohibited Grounds of Discrimination Most prohibited grounds of discrimination are fairly obvious. In Alberta, it's about race, religious belief, colour, gender, gender identity, gender expression, physical disability, mental disability, age, ancestry, place of origin, marital status, source of income, family status, or sexual orientation. These are very broad categories, and exte...