Employment & Human Rights

Nelson, Watson Professional Corporation offers a wealth of experience advising and representing employees as well as small and medium-sized businesses and non-profit organizations with employment law and human rights matters. We work with our clients to understand the factual and legal issues of each particular situation and tailor our advice accordingly. We advise and represent clients on the following types of employment and human rights issues:

  • Severance and termination packages
  • Wrongful and constructive dismissal lawsuits
  • Reviewing employment contracts and offers of employment
  • Human rights, discrimination, harassment and duty to accommodate complaints
  • Employment Standards Act complaints (including failure to comply with rules about overtime, holiday pay, vacation, pregnancy and parental leave, and other employment standards rules)
  • Long-term disability benefits claims and disputes with insurance companies
  • Employment Insurance (EI) and Canada Pension Plan (CPP) appeals
  • Independent contracting and consulting
  • Human rights and harassment policies
  • Accommodating disabled employees
  • Performance management and discipline
  • Terminations and lay-offs
  • Enforcing confidentiality and non-solicitation agreements
  • Occupational Heath and Safety
  • Privacy and Access to Information
  • Drafting employment contracts; confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements; and non-competition or non-solicitation agreements
  • Employment issues related to business purchase and sale transactions
  • Employment policies and procedures
  • Advising unionized employees about their rights

Employees Seeking Legal Advice:

Employees always have the right to seek legal advice before agreeing to any change to their terms of employment or a severance package. Employees should almost never sign anything without getting legal advice first. Usually, deadlines given by employers in severance package letters are not mandatory, and it is usually possible to extend such deadlines on request in order to allow time to schedule a consultation with a lawyer for legal advice.

We will likely ask you for copies of documents and records to help us advise you. You can help the process by compiling whatever documents you are able to easily access, including:

  • Employment Contract(s)/ Letter(s) of Offer
  • Termination Letter
  • Performance Appraisal(s)
  • Discipline record(s)
  • T4s for past three years
  • Current paystubs
  • Benefits booklet(s)
  • Key emails or correspondence dealing with any of the above

Note: It is fine if you do not have access to records. Do not let that be an obstacle to getting legal advice.

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