Return-to-Office Mandates: Considerations For Employers And Employees

With news of large Ontario employers, such as banks and financial services firms, imposing sweeping return-to-office mandates to take effect this year, the legal implications of such policy changes have been top of mind for employers and employees in Ontario. This blog post summarizes some recent court and tribunal decisions and discusses their implications for employers considering returning workers to the office, and employees faced with changes to remote or hybrid working arrangements.

Constructive Dismissal

An employee is constructively dismissed when an employer makes a unilateral and fundamental change to a term or condition of an employment contract without providing reasonable notice of that change to the employee (Potter v. New Brunswick Legal Aid Services Commission, 2015 SCC 10).