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HARASSMENT
Pension Benefits while on Pregnancy Leave
Conflicts are part of all organizations and the workplace is no exception. Human Resource managers spend a significant portion of their time trying to solve personality conflicts between employees. They also manage other stressful situations that may result in a negative work environment leading to a loss of productivity. In some cases, conflicts between employees may turn into real guerilla warfare where a co-worker will adopt in a conscious or unconscious way, abusive and/or humiliating behaviour that may deeply hurt feelings and cause long-time damage to harmonious workplace relations. Many social science experts have studied this phenomenon during the past decade, using terms such as mobbing, bullying or moral harassment to characterize it. On June 1, 2004, the Quebec legislature decided to offer employees protection against vexatious behaviour by enacting a law against psychological harassment at work. This law caused a real upheaval in Quebec labour law by initiating an astronomical number of complaints. Indeed, the law provides a recourse against psychological harassment that is available to any employee (including senior employees), whether unionized or non-unionized, that may lead to an award of damages, a reinstatement, reimbursement of psychotherapist fees or various other remedies. While it is too soon to tell if the enactment of the law was an effective instrument to reduce psychological harassment at work, Daniel Rochefort and Robert Boyd explore the scope and limits of this new legal recourse.
BUSINESS CLOSURE
An Update on Salary Continuance
The question of an employer’s right to close its business in the context of union activity was examined in recent case law dealing with an employer’s right to cease operations, in whole or in part. These cases have provided an opportunity for Quebec courts and labour tribunals to re-examine the established case law and even question the extent of an employer’s right in this respect. Danny Kaufer and Alexandre Buswell examine the issue of an employer’s right to cease operations, which was recently dealt with by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Société de la Place des Arts de Montréal case and in a series of subsequent cases that ensued following the closing of a Wal-Mart store in Jonquière, Quebec. While both the Société de la Place des Arts de Montréal and Wal-Mart cases now constitute very important precedents, it should be noted that the case law in the province of Quebec in this respect has been established for nearly two decades.
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