Employment and Labour Law

Employment and labour law in Canada is designed to regulate both the conditions of employment and the relations between employers and employees. To understand Canadian labour and employment law, it is necessary to know about the constitutional division of power between the federal government of Canada and the governments of Canada's 10 provinces and three territories.

While labour and employment matters are principally within provincial and territorial jurisdiction, the federal government does have jurisdiction over certain industries that are viewed as having a national, international or inter-provincial character, such as banks, air transport, pipelines, telephone systems, television and inter-provincial trucking. All other employers are provincially regulated for the purpose of labour and employment matters. As a result, the vast majority of employers in Canada are required to comply with the employment standards, labour relations and other employment-related legislation of each of the provinces where it has operations.

Regardless of whether a business is provincially or federally regulated, or where in Canada it carries on business, Canadian employers should be familiar with the following types of employment-related legislation:

Employment Standards Legislation
Human Rights Legislation
Federal and Provincial Privacy Legislation
Occupational Health and Safety Legislation
Workers' Compensation Legislation, and
Labour Relations Legislation

The legislation referred to above is only the start. Regulations made pursuant to this legislation also establish numerous rights and obligations for employers and employees. For example, there are detailed regulations made under both employment standards and occupational health and safety legislation, which give substance to the obligations contained in the statutes. When considering any labour and employment problem, it is important to ensure there are no additional regulatory rights or obligations that may impact on its solution. In addition to the statutory obligations discussed above, employers are also required to satisfy common law obligations owed to their employees in Canada's common law provinces, and to abide by the Civil Code of Quebec. The most significant of these obligations is to provide employees with reasonable notice of the termination of the employment relationship without cause, which notice is described in greater detail below in Section 2, Common Law Obligations to Employees.