Since the publication of the first edition in 1970, Labour and Employment Law: Cases, Materials, and Commentary has become the standard resource for labour and employment law courses across Canada. Prepared by a national group of academics – the Labour Law Casebook Group – the book has continued to evolve with each new edition, reflecting the considerable changes that have occurred in Canadian workplaces and the laws governing them. A great many changes throughout the book respond to the numerous developments in labour and employment law since 2011. The most high-profile of these has been the set of Charter decisions that extend the protection of freedom of association to include the right to choose an independent bargaining agent and the right to strike, and which rely significantly on international labour standards in doing so. Additionally, this new edition responds to the growing importance of international and transnational law with a completely revised chapter; focuses on the gig economy and the proliferation of contracting networks that have fissured workplace relations; provides examples of caselaw and policy discussions grappling with the reach of legal responsibility to workers in these new relationships; and deepens the treatment of the rights of dependent contractors at common law and under labour and employment legislation.

New cases and other source material have been added, and material that appeared in previous editions has been updated. The result is a comprehensive and thoroughly contemporary volume that benefits from over forty-five years of use in law schools across the country, while at the same time taking advantage of cutting-edge scholarship in assessing issues of contemporary concern.