Describe the legal framework that is provided for the employment contract by

1. identifying the tests the courts apply to determine who is an employee.

2. explaining how these tests have been defined or modified in Pointe-Claire (City of) v. Quebec (Labour Court), [1997] 1 S.C.R. 1015.

3. summarizing the most important principles of contract law governing the formation of an employment contract.

Employment contracts are encased by many legal frameworks which significantly influence the how the contracts are interpreted and enforced. These legal frameworks include tests used by courts to determine who is an employee and how these tests were altered by the Pointe-Claire v. Quebec case trialed by the Supreme Court of Canada, …show more content…
Current tests assume a broad understanding that can depict the majority of relationships of vulnerability; however some level of flexibility is not only inevitable, but also enviable. A more productive approach may be to add a new category of “dependent contractor” and stipulate which statutory and common law privileges are and are not appropriate for this new category (England, 2008, pp.22-23).

The 1997 Supreme Court of Canada case, Pointe-Claire v. Quebec, had great influence over the tests used in the determination of an employment contract, especially in the situation of determining who the employer is in a tripartite setting. In the case, Pointe-Claire hired an employee through an employment agency. The employee’s wages were paid via the agency, but the employee worked under the supervision of a city manager. The court determined that the most suitable approach for this case was to consider the factors relevant to the employer-employee relationship, which led to the resolve that the employee was in fact an employee of the city of Pointe-Claire (Foster, n.d., Lesson 4). In short, the Supreme Court of Canada held that the core of a worker-employer relationship in a tripartite situation is control over working conditions, which requires deliberation of which party has control