Assignment

Fact Scenario

Jessica began working for TDHB Company on September 1, 2019. She was hired as a customer

se

rvice representative where she processed customer complaints and entered them into a

database. Jessica was earning $924 per week, not including vacation pay. Her vacation pay is

paid to her as it accrues each pay period.

Andrea is the general manager of TDHB. On September 17, 2019, Andrea and Jessica signed an

employment agreement. In the agreement, Jessica would be paid time in lieu for any overtime

that she worked. In addition, according to the terms of the employment agreement, should

Jessica be terminated from her job, she will only receive termination notice or pay as prescribed

in the

Employment Standards Act, 2000

.

It was a very busy time for TDHB and Jessica worked many hours of overtime. From September

until the end of February 2020, Jessica worked a total of 144 hours of overtime. In March, Jessica

took a week off and used 44 hours of lieu time and therefore has 100 hours remaining.

When she returned on March 9

th

, she was informed that she was now going to be a manager. In

addition to her existing duties, Jessica would be tracking overtime hours and absences of

employees. For the time being, Andrea makes all decisions regarding discipline and termination.

Maybe one day, Jessica will be permitted to make discipline and termination decisions but for

now, Andrea feels that Jessica is not ready. Jessica now earns $968 per week, not including

vacation pay.

According to TDHB Company policy, Jessica is no longer entitled to payment of overtime or any

lieu time because she is a manager. Andrea promised to pay out Jessica's banked overtime from

his previous position over the next six months.

However, COVID radically changed the reality for the company. The company lost a lot of

business during this economic calamity. In order to save the company, the company announced

that all earned overtime is now forfeited.

Ten employees have been laid off so Jessica now has to work harder. She is now working an

average of 65 hours per week. From March 23

rd

to August 28

th

, she had no time off work. She was

even working on Sundays! She even had to work every public holiday during this period but she

was given time-and-a-half for each hour worked on these days.

At the beginning of August, Andrea noticed that the emergency exit door had been kicked in

from the inside of the building. As the company was struggling, it did not want to pay to fix it.

Instead, it deducted $150 from a total of 6 employees, all of whom who work in the vicinity

around this exit - surely one of them is responsible for this damage!

Things were getting really bad quickly! On September 7

th

, the company suddenly announced that

all employees would have a pay cut. Jessica will therefore earn $600 per week.

On October 14

th

, the company suddenly closed shop! All 100 employees were terminated! Jessica

received 2 weeks pay in lieu of notice.

Jessica has approached you for help. Using the knowledge gained from this course, your job is to

present a summary of her entitlements under the

Employment Standards Act, 2000

and common

law