In Nayyar v. Manufacturers Life Insurance Company/La Compagnie D'Assurance Manufactures, 2012 BCSC 28, the BC Supreme Court considered the right of the employer/disability plan administrator/insurer to terminate an employee's disability benefits for failing to attend an Independent Medical Exam ("IME").

Of specific value is this overview of the law on IME's that the court set out:

[120]     Given the continuing nature of a claim under a disability policy, an insurer is entitled to information concerning the insured in order to properly assess the claimant's ongoing entitlement to receive disability benefits: Paul Revere Life Insurance Company v. Patterson, 2002 BCSC 138 (CanLII), 2002 BCSC 138 at para. 12, 99 B.C.L.R. (3d) 189.  read more »

Duong v. Linamar Corporation, 2010 ONSC 3159

Vancouver labour and employment lawyers Carmen Overholt, Q.C. and Matthew Curtis have written a paper on, "Employer Rights and Obligations in Connection with Employee Personal Medical Information".

The paper was written for the Meeting of the Council of Industrial Relations Executives on June 8 and 9, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia with the assistance of David R. Phillips, articled student.

Three Calgary lawyers at Gowlings - David Corry, Loretta Bouwmeester and Chris Sabat - have prepared a a 48-page overview of the key legal considerations for employers in "Disability Management Compliance". The Table of Contents is as follows:  read more »

Ford v. Peak Products Manufacturing, 2010 BCHRT 155

Lancaster House presented an audio-conference last Thursday (May 13, 2010) on the "Top 10 Cases on Workplace Privacy in the Unionized Workplace". The cases covered  - there were more than 10 - were:  read more »

In a recent case - Sluzar v. City of Burnaby (No. 3), 2010 BCHRT 19 - the BC Human Rights Tribunal ruled, among other things, that the employer had a valid and reasonable basis for requesting that the employee attend a Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) and an Independent Medical Examination (IME) with a psychologist, as part of the accommodation process.

You can read Bull Housser Tupper's summary of this case here.

March v. Yukon (Human Rights Board of Adjudication), 2010 YKCA 3

"Examining the Causal Link between Disability and Discipline: An Arbitrator's Perspective" (undated) is the title of a paper written by Barry B. Fisher, a lawyer, mediator and arbitrator in Ontario.

In Taylor v. New Westminster (City) (Vancouver Registry S084283, August 19, 2009), the court found that the employer did not have just cause to dismiss an employee who refused to sign an extension to a Return to Work Agreement that required him to acknowledge that he had an alcohol dependency.

Background

At the time of his dismissal, the employee was 54 years old, had 16 years of service and earned a salary of approximately $90,000 per annum. He was Manager of Fleet Services, a safety sensitive position in that he supervised a team of mechanics who performed maintenance and repair work on the employer's various vehicles, including those for the fire and police departments.

Until February 2007, the employee had "an excellent work history" and the employer had "no concerns about his safety in the workplace" (para. 9).

The Incident  read more »