Vancouver Employment Lawyer

A Vancouver employment lawyer helps employees and advises employers on the legal issues that arise from the workplace. For employees, this typically includes reviewing severance offers, pursuing wrongful and constructive dismissal claims, advising on workplace harassment, discrimination, and human rights matters, reviewing and negotiating employment contracts and executive agreements, and representing employees in workplace investigations and disputes.

For employers, an employment lawyer drafts employment contracts and workplace policies, advises on terminations, conducts and supports workplace investigations, defends against wrongful dismissal and human rights claims, and provides labour relations advice for unionized workplaces.

Many of these matters are resolved through negotiation rather than litigation, particularly when legal advice is obtained early.

British Columbia's Employment Standards Act sets a minimum: compensation for length of service ranging from one week (after three months of service) up to a maximum of eight weeks (after eight or more years of service). However, employees terminated without cause in BC are generally entitled to significantly more under the common law, which considers factors including age, position, length of service, and the availability of comparable employment.

For employees in senior, executive, professional, or specialized roles common in Vancouver's tech, film, mining, healthcare, and corporate sectors, common-law severance is often several months or more, and may include the value of unvested bonuses, options, and equity. Whether your offer reflects your full entitlements is something a Vancouver employment lawyer can assess directly.

BC employers terminating an employee need to consider four things at minimum: (1) whether the termination is for cause or without cause, (2) what notice or pay in lieu is required under both the Employment Standards Act and the common law (which is often substantially higher than the statutory minimum), (3) the enforceability of any termination clause in the employment contract, and (4) the wording of the termination letter and release.

Mishandling any one of these significantly raises the risk of a wrongful dismissal claim and increases the cost of resolving it. We advise BC employers on every step from the termination decision through the offer, the release, and post-termination communications, with the aim of producing a clean termination that limits liability.

As early as possible. For employees, the highest-value point is before signing a severance release, before responding in writing to a termination, and before signing a new employment contract or executive agreement. For employers, the highest-value point is before issuing a termination, before responding to a complaint, before drafting or updating an employment contract or policy, and at the very start of a workplace investigation.

Severance offers and demand letters often have signing or response deadlines. Once a release is signed, it is binding; once an investigation starts off-track, it is hard to recover. Early legal advice typically costs far less than what is at stake.

Yes. Achkar Law's employment lawyers serve employees and employers across all of Metro Vancouver, including the City of Vancouver (Downtown, West End, Yaletown, Kitsilano, Mount Pleasant, Kerrisdale, Point Grey, Killarney, Hastings-Sunrise, and other neighbourhoods), North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, New Westminster, Delta, and Langley, and into the Fraser Valley (Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows). Consultations are available virtually across BC.

Yes. Most employment law matters can be handled entirely through video or phone consultations, with documents exchanged electronically. Many of our BC clients, both employees and employer organizations, prefer virtual consultations for convenience and efficiency.

In BC, "employment lawyer" and "labour lawyer" are often used interchangeably, but technically: employment law covers individual workplace relationships for non-unionized employees, while labour law covers unionized workplaces and collective bargaining under the BC Labour Relations Code.

For unionized employees, most workplace disputes go through the grievance procedure under the collective agreement, and the union is the primary representative. Achkar Law represents non-unionized employees in BC on the full range of employment matters, and represents unionized employees on human rights complaints that fall outside what the grievance procedure addresses. For employers in unionized workplaces, our labour lawyers advise on collective bargaining, grievance and arbitration, certification matters, and BC Labour Relations Board proceedings.

Vancouver hosts some of Canada's most distinctive employment ecosystems: a major technology sector, the country's largest film and television production cluster ("Hollywood North"), and the head offices of much of Canada's mining and resource sector. Each comes with employment-law features worth understanding.

In tech and corporate roles, equity grants, stock options, RSUs, and performance bonuses are often a significant part of compensation, and the language in employment agreements about vesting, forfeiture, and termination can substantially affect both employee severance and employer exposure. In film and television, fixed-term and project-based engagements raise questions about whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor, what statutory entitlements apply, and how restrictive covenants interact with the next project. In mining and resources, executive and senior technical employment is common, with corresponding executive severance, retention bonus, and restrictive covenant questions.

Our Vancouver employment lawyers advise employees and employers in all of these sectors.