Who Is My Employer?

Earlier this year, the Alberta Court of Appeal was required to consider whether the common law definition of "employer" should be expanded in the context of the Alberta Human Rights Act (the "Act"), where a worker who failed a drug test required by Syncrude was denied access to a Syncrude worksite in Fort McMurray. The case has implications particularly for companies that use contractors and have a relatively high level of control over the contractors' employees.

The case is Lockerbie & Hole Industrial Inc. v. Alberta (Human Rights and Citizenship Commission, Director), 2011 ABCA 3. The worker's direct employer was not Syncrude, but Lockerbie & Hole, an arm's-length subcontractor performing construction work on the Syncrude site. The question before the Court was whether Syncrude was also the worker's employer for the purposes of the Act. While recognizing that co-employment was possible in certain circumstances, the Honourable Mr. Justice Slatter, writing for the