Depending on your situation, you can take your employer to court if you are still working for them or after you quit or are terminated. If you are having issues at work, you should try to negotiate with your employer so that you can come up with a solution that you can both agree upon. This will save yourself the cost and hassle that goes along with a lawsuit. Going to court should be your last resort.
If you are an employee who is in a union, you cannot take your employer to court. You would need to follow the union’s grievance policy. This means that you would need to bring your claims to your union representative and they would bring the issues to your employer. The union must provide fair representation to individual union members. They cannot make decisions the grievance in a discriminatory manner, in bad faith, or arbitrarily. If you believe that the union should have handled your grievance differently, you can bring an administrative complaint against the union.
If you are not in a union, you can sue your employer in court if the employer doesn’t hold up their duties and obligations that are defined under your contract or under the employment and human rights laws. At the very least, your employer is required to meet employment standards including:
• Minimum wage requirements
• Overtime pay
• Mandatory sick days
• Vacation pay
• Termination pay
• Severance pay
• Notice of termination requirements
• Protection of employee’s safety
If your employer is not meeting these needs that are required by law and they are not being responsive to your concerns, you have the legal right to sue.
It is not uncommon for employer-employee relationships to go wrong when people are fired or laid off for questionable reasons. You have the right to sue if you were wrongfully dismissed or if your employer fired you for illegal or improper reasons.
Constructive dismissal is similar to wrongful dismissal. This is when your employer makes the work environment so bad that you need to walk away from the job. In a situation such as this, you would need to convince the judge that the work environment was so bad that no reasonable person would have been able to continue working there. Another example of constructive dismissal is when your employer is abusing and harassing you at work, and they give you the option of quit or be fired.
Typically, your employment contract outlines the terms of your employment. Most employment contracts include:
• Job description
• Work hours
• Pay structure
• Vacation allowance
• Sick leave
• Benefits
• Termination-related clauses
If your employer changes the terms of your contract without your consent or unreasonably, you can sue them for breach of contract. If the changes were so severe that you can no longer work there, the situation could be considered constructive dismissal. The most common reasons that this happens is if your employer drastically reduces your salary or if they make a significant change in your hours.
Your employer must respect your privacy rights and your freedom of expression. This means that your employer cannot restrict or intrude on your personal life and options outside of the workplace. Also, any of your personal or financial information that your employer has cannot be disclosed to the public without your authorization and outside of what was outlined in your employment contract.
Also, you should understand that every territory and province has anti-discrimination and human rights laws. These laws protect you from being harassed and discriminated against in the workplace. For example, you cannot be denied a raise or a promotion based on your sex, religion, ethnic background, or sexual orientation. It is illegal for your employer to treat you differently or unequally without a valid reason. If any of these things happen, you can take your lawyer to court with an employment discrimination lawyer.
To learn more about your employment rights and how to take your employer to court, you can get information regarding employment law from an employment lawyer.
Lesperance Mendes Lawyers
900 Howe St #550, Vancouver, BC V6Z 2M4
(604) 685-3567