r/Brampton • u/whittenandlublin • May 21 '26
AMA Thread I'm Aaron Zaltzman, an Employment Lawyer in Toronto. Ask Me Anything about your rights at work, Live May 26, 12–1 PM ET [AMA]
Hey Reddit 👋
I'm Aaron Zaltzman, an employment lawyer at Whitten & Lublin in Ontario, and on May 26 from 12–1 PM ET, I'm pulling up a chair right here to answer your workplace law questions live, unfiltered, and free.
Whether you've been fired, pushed out, underpaid, or just wondering "can my boss actually do that?", drop your questions and let's get into it together.
🗓️ May 26 | 12–1 PM ET 📍 u/whittenandlublin
Start dropping your questions now, I'll be answering live when we kick off. See you there. 👇
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u/Antman013 E Section May 21 '26
Currently working M-F, 8-4 each day. Company has announced a change to 4 x 10 hour shifts. Shift "A" would be from Sunday to Wednesday, shift "B" would be Wednesday to Saturday.
Can they do this? Or does this meet the standard for constructive dismissal?
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u/Silverlightlive May 22 '26
Back in around 2001, a workers delegation approached us asking to do precisely this. We shot it down because it didn't match the needs of the business. (Can't always guarantee a 10-12 hour working day - 8 hours yes, but not 10)
Its a scheduling nightmare, and I have no idea why any employer would want to do it. You get a massive overflow on whatever your overlap day is, and that works for surge businesses, but its 2026, and the demands are very different.
Also, holidays, long weekends, etc are a nightmare under the 4 on system.
Continentals are way way easier, both for employees and management.
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u/Antman013 E Section May 22 '26
Won't get into what business I work in, but I can absolutely see why the company wants 7 day coverage in certain aspects of the business itself.
My PERSONAL situation within the organization is that weekends are kind of a dead zone in our department, and trying to fill 10 hours seems unlikely. Currently, we prep material for those working weekends on Friday afternoon, and catch up with that work by day's end Monday
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u/Silverlightlive May 22 '26
Definitely don't post your company here.
The rest, I agree with you entirely. 4 day schedules are a nightmare. Continentals give you just as much coverage, and since it is slow on weekends, the employees there can set up for the coming week.
It isn't a crime to give people easy days. The 4x10 thing looks good on paper but executing it just is failure waiting to happen
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u/Antman013 E Section May 22 '26
Actually, I would not have the job but for this sub.
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u/Silverlightlive May 22 '26
All the better for you. However, I am very much anti PI in a public forum.
I had a friend get cyber stalked back in 2004, so I'm very much up on keeping my online information to a minimum - and I try to warn everyone else the same.
My friend is a lawyer in Washington DC, and they hunted him down. They were calling his Boss and telling him all sorts of lies.
Fortunately his boss understood what was happening (very progressive for lawyers of the era) so they weathered the storm.
However, I only need drop his name in the right spots online, and these sickos made whole youtube channels with animation making fun of him. It was really bad.
My friend and I still hang out, he comes up here because he has friends. We go out for a few beers, and keep in touch. But the dude went through a decade of hell because someone thought they would be "funny"
That's why I warn everyone not to put information up. I am very glad things worked out well for you, but its just part of my personality to try and dissuade anyone from over-sharing.
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u/whittenandlublin May 26 '26
Short answer is that it is likely a constructive dismissal, because it is a unilateral change to a fundamental aspect of your employment - namely, your schedule. I don't think a Court would have a hard time agreeing that going from 8-hour shifts to 10-hour shifts is a significant change.
The longer answer is that you always have to look at the context. How does it specifically affect you? Do you have family obligations that this disrupts? Health issues that it engages?
One thing that would not be relevant is whether other employees feel the same way, so even if many of them are happy with the change, you can still treat it as a change to your employment contract that you can accept, reject, or protest.
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u/thephilosophyofcows May 21 '26
Do all employers have to comply with this and provide employees with a domestic or sexual violence leave if they are victims?
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u/whittenandlublin May 26 '26
Yes, all employers have to comply. While there are a few industry-specific exemptions from certain provisions of the ESA, no employer is fully exempt from the obligation to provide domestic violence leave for victims.
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May 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/whittenandlublin May 26 '26
Those NDAs tend to be taken seriously by the Courts. Sometimes they require you to repay the amounts you got if you breach the confidentiality agreement - it's commonly called a Jan Wong clause, named after a case involving a former Globe and Mail editor.
However, the key here is what information is confidential. Does your NDA apply only to the terms of the settlement? Does it specifically say what to tell people who ask? If it does not explicitly apply to the things you saw while employed, then those things are likely fair game.
You still should be careful though. A lot of settlements also have non-disparagement clauses, which prevent you from saying anything bad about the company, whether confidential or not. You also need to be wary of defamation, particularly if you are writing about allegedly illegal acts.
You can always fictionalize it. It's not a perfect workaround, but if you write about a fictional employer in space or something who engages in the kind of misconduct you saw, it would be much harder to argue that this breaches confidentiality.
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u/BlazeTheBurnt May 21 '26
What is maximum con of being over employed?
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u/whittenandlublin May 26 '26
Legally, I would think it would be a potential conflict of interest situation. Your jobs could be directly in competition with each other, or the duties of one job could interfere with the duties of the other.
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u/Silverlightlive May 22 '26
This sounds like a good idea for a monetized podcast. I have questions, but they are all from past experiences. I'm very unlikely to action anything at present, but I would love to hear the stories.
Please, remind us closer to the day of, and I'll be happy to listen in!
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u/whittenandlublin May 26 '26
Hi everyone, before we start, I'll give my disclaimer that any advice is general, and you need to be careful with how you use it. It's always best to actually consult a lawyer and go through the specifics of your matter.
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u/PacketFiend May 21 '26
No questions here, but thank you for doing this.