Chapter 7 – Employment Law
2085 CCQ: Employee
2098 CCQ: Contractor
Work for employer
Work for a client
Receive remuneration (incl. benefits, car, etc) linked to the work
Receive price that is not automatically linked to the work. Depends on what you agreed w/ your client. Needs to be agreed upon in advance.
Under employer’s control. Subordination link. Tools, procedures given to you by employer
No subordination. Working for yourself. Free to organize the work the way you want as long as you provide the results
Personal obligation to fulfill your work
Can hire help if necessary
Subordination- has to do what employer tells him to
Autonomous- can do whatever they want
Employer is liable
Contractor/service provider is liable
Within the business
Outside the business remuneration Paid a price (independent from the actual value of the act)- 2106, 2109
No profit
All the profit for the interaction
Works for employer
Works for client
Employee has to do his job personally
Can hire help liable for checking that the job is done
Tends to be a bit more grey than this. Sometimes judges decide that one can be the other.
Examples:
Work as a contractor but you only have one major client. You work for yourself but in practice you’re very dependent on the one client so it may turn into an employment contract
As long as an employees work for home, employer control is reduced. May go either way.

2085 CCQ:
Work
Remuneration
Subordination

What do you need to have an existing employment contract?
Who is involved?
Employees have to be physical beings, can’t be corporations.
Employers can be a corporation or an employee
Formalism?
Can have an employment just by shaking hands & having an agreement. Doesn’t have to be written out (verbal = ok)
Only thing that needs to be written is a non-compete agreement
Capacity?
Minors > 14
Incapacitated adults
Consent? Ways in which contracts can be cancelled. Signed due to:
Fear  when you sign a contract because you’re threatened into signing it
Lesion  when one side exploits the other (concerns minors & incapacitated adults)
Error  Some kind of mistake about the job itself, the tasks, the salary or the person (most common reason)
For an error to apply, it needs to be done in good faith.
Can only claim error if employer has done his verifications properly (if employer is negligent, he wont be able to cancel because he didn’t do his homework in the first place)
Limits to what can be asked  charter (discrimination, unrelated info, privacy)

Employee has a duty to answer all questions in good faith. If employee lies, employer can claim there is an error on the contract
Must be careful with info pertinent to the contract
Ex: Truck driver needs to disclose that his license has been suspended even if the employer doesn’t ask
Bad faith examples that can be used to claim error: pretending you have a degree you don’t really have, forged documents proving things that are not true,
CCQ 2086 – Fixed or Indeterminate Term
Duration: in principle, 2086 tells us that it can be a fixed term or it can be an indeterminate term. You can have a contract with no end, but you
Health, Safety & Dignity (CCQ 2087)
CCQ 2087: employer has to protect health and safety- anything that threatens the mental or physical well being. You must be able to work in a decent condition as an employee.
Employers must eliminate any kid of danger (ex: if they see a floor is slippery, the must eliminate the risk). They have to provide safe tools and methods for maintaining the tools.
You must make sure your employees actually follow the rules. The duty to provide a healthy and safe environment extends to the employees belongings.
Ex there is a man who has heavy tools which are inconvenient to bring back and forth from work everyday. The company agrees that they can leave their tools there. The building burns down and all the tools are destroyed. The employee goes to small claims and is awarded compensation for his tools.
The employer has a duty to