Employment In Canada: What Every Foreign Employer Must Know Before Hiring

Who this is for: HR directors, GCs, CFOs, and operations leads at foreign companies hiring Canadian employees, establishing Canadian operations, or managing a Canadian workforce.  

The assumption that creates the most expensive employment disputes: Foreign companies, particularly U.S.-based ones, enter Canada assuming that employment practices that are legal and standard at home will work in Canada. They frequently do not. At-will termination does not exist in Canada. Random drug testing is generally prohibited. Non-compete clauses are largely unenforceable in most provinces. Termination provisions that are standard in U.S. offer letters routinely fail Canadian legal scrutiny and expose employers to common law reasonable notice claims that can reach two years of compensation for a senior employee. And the federal and provincial divide means that a single Canadian workforce may be subject to two entirely different regulatory regimes depending on the industry the employer operates in.