What happens when a foreign worker loses their authorization to work in Canada? Can an employer put them on unpaid leave? Lay them off? Terminate them? And what happens to severance when a worker’s immigration status makes it difficult, or impossible, to find another job?
Employment lawyer Erin Brandt returns to Borderlines to discuss the increasingly important intersection between Canadian immigration and employment law.
We discuss:
• The difference between termination, temporary layoffs and unpaid leave
• What employers should do when a work permit extension is refused
• Employees vs. independent and dependent contractors
• Employment Standards Act vs. common-law severance
• Whether being on a closed work permit can increase severance
• Fixed-term employment contracts and immigration-related job offers
• Whether employers have to support work permit extensions
• Employer questions about immigration processing and security screening
• Rescinding job offers when a worker cannot obtain authorization to work in Canada
We also discuss why immigration lawyers and employment lawyers increasingly need to understand each other’s areas of practice, and why losing immigration status does not necessarily mean that an employee loses their employment-law rights.
Erin Brandt is an employment lawyer in British Columbia.
Like and subscribe for more discussions about Canadian immigration law and policy
","author_name":"Steven Meurrens and Deanna Okun-Nachoff"}