CANADA Law and Practice Contributed by: Christopher Pigott, Rachel Younan, Jacob Wagner and Felisha Jagiah, Fasken
Fasken 333 Bay Street
Suite 2400 PO Box 20 Toronto Ontario M5H 2T6 Canada
Tel: +1 416 366 7813 Fax: +1 416 364 7813 Email: toronto@fasken.com Web: www.fasken.com
1. Employment Terms 1.1 Employee Status
In addition, regulations in each jurisdiction establish exceptions to the maximum hours that can be worked in specific industries (eg, tourism). 1.2 Employment Contracts Definite and Indefinite Contracts Contracts of employment may be for a definite or indefinite term. Employees hired on a definite, or fixed-term, employ - ment basis are hired for a specific period of time. In such employment relationships, there is no intent to create an ongoing employment relationship. The requirement to provide notice of termination, dis - cussed later in this section, may be avoided in certain circumstances by hiring on a definite-term basis if the term is well defined. An employee hired on a definite- term contract is entitled to be employed for the entire term of the contract unless the contract is terminated for cause or is rendered impossible to perform. As a result (and in the absence of an enforceable clause providing the option to terminate the contract early), if a definite-term employee’s employment is terminated before the expiry of the term, the employee will likely be entitled to damages equivalent to the amount the employee was entitled to earn during the remainder of the contract. By contrast, employees hired on an indefinite basis can generally only be terminated with reasonable
Canada is a federal jurisdiction in which the provinces have principal authority over labour and employment matters. However, the federal government has exclu - sive authority over labour and employment matters in certain important areas, including banking, the postal service, interprovincial transportation, telecommuni - cations and various other sectors that make up part of Canada’s national infrastructure. Labour and employment legislation across Canada does not generally differentiate between blue- and white-collar workers. However, separate requirements or exemptions in respect of matters such as minimum wages, eligibility for overtime, and maximum hours of work are often established for different types of work, including in relation to specific industries or for specific types of employees. By way of example, in most jurisdictions, supervisory and managerial personnel are exempt from the pay - ment of overtime. Other groups are also excluded from overtime pay provisions in most jurisdictions, including professionals (lawyers, doctors, engineers, etc), domestic workers, teachers, police and IT pro - fessionals. Similarly, supervisory and managerial per - sonnel and specified groups are also excluded from maximum hours of work provisions.
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