Labour & Employment Law

Farris runs on the strength of the people who work here and of those who will join our story in the future.

Business leaders know the value of creating a work environment that attracts highly-skilled talent and advances careers, while delivering success for clients and customers.

Our lawyers are recognized leaders in the practice of labour and employment law and are actively engaged in all areas of the law that impact upon the employment relationship across provincial and federal sectors.

We regularly act for unionized clients with respect to grievance arbitration and collective agreement administration. Our lawyers conduct Labour Board hearings including applications for certification and decertification, unfair labour practices, variance, common employer and successorship issues. We assist clients with strikes and lockouts and the legal issues that can arise including picketing, ally and replacement workers. Our lawyers have acted as counsel for clients regulated by the federal Canada Labour Code, obtaining injunctions from illegal picketing in Supreme Court.

Our non-unionized clients rely on our expertise on employment law issues. We work closely with our clients’ human resources personnel to ensure their legal interests are protected. We advise on an array of issues including employment contracts, executive compensation, severance, workplace investigations, workplace policies/employment manuals, workers’ compensation/occupational health and safety, sickness and disability, and pensions and benefits.

We work closely with our clients in connection with corporate transactions to ensure employment issues are identified and addressed proactively. We advise clients faced with departing key employees and issues related to fiduciary duties and restrictive covenants.

Our lawyers regularly represent our clients defending wrongful dismissal claims in Court and appearing before administrative tribunals that apply employment-related statutes, including the Human Rights Tribunal, the Employment Standards Tribunal, the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.