The Best Lawyers™ in Canada 2024 recognizes 26 Mathews Dinsdale lawyers, from coast-to-cost, as leaders in the fields of Labour and Employment Law, Workers' Compensation Law, Employee Benefits Law and Immigration Law.
Daniel L. Leone
Partner Toronto, T: 416.869.8545 C: 416.727.8545 F: 416.862.8247 dleone@mathewsdinsdale.com
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Kyla Hull Assistant 416.862.8280 x301 khull@mathewsdinsdale.com
Biography
Bar admission
Law Society of Ontario
Education
Brock University, B.A. (Hons.)
Queen’s University, LL.B.
Membership and affiliations
American Bar Association
Canadian Association of Counsel to Employers (CACE)
Canadian Bar Association
Ontario Bar Association
Practice areas
Employment law
Labour relations
Construction labour relations
Human rights
Profile
Dan is an experienced legal advisor, collective bargaining spokesperson and labour litigator who has been assisting employers in all areas of workplace law for over 20 years. He is repeatedly recognized as one of the leading labour relations lawyers in Canada by Best Lawyers in Canada and the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory.
Dan represents employers in both the public and private sectors including: Education; Long-Term Care; Power Generation and Distribution; Waste Management; Construction; Manufacturing; Engineering; Food Production; Meat Processing; Transportation; Retail; Pharmaceutical; and Information Technology.
He is well known for providing both practical and strategic advice to his clients in a timely and comprehendible manner, resulting in creative and cost effective solutions that best suit his client’s sector, individual business and specific needs.
Dan is also very well known for being one of the most experienced labour litigators in Ontario having appeared as counsel in hundreds of hearings before Rights and Interest Arbitrators, the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the Canada Industrial Relations Board, and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
He assists and represents employers on a broad array of matters including: grievance arbitrations; human rights complaints; employment standards complaints; unfair labour practice complaints; union organizing; applications for certification; unlawful strikes; merger, acquisition, sale and restructuring of a business; and policy creation.
Dan is an active member of both the Canadian and American Bar Associations and is on the Executive for both the Labour and Employment Law Section (Public Affairs Liaison) and Education Law Section (Vice-Chair) of the Ontario Bar Association. He is a member of Mathews Dinsdale & Clark LLP’s Executive Committee and a regular Speaker in the Firm’s webinar series.
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Representative experience
October 2024Arbitrator dismisses grievance alleging that Employer was barred from scheduling Early Childhood Educators for breaks during the instructional period of the day. Counsel: Daniel Leone
June 2024Ontario Labour Relations Board concludes in Application for Certification that four workers were employees of subcontractor and not general contractor, despite subcontractor not having supervision on site. Counsel: Daniel Leone
February 2024Arbitrator upholds discharge of employee who caused defective product to be produced due to careless and negligent work performance. Counsel: Daniel Leone
February 2024Successfully defended school board over claim that board had not accommodated a disabled worker appropriately and had engaged in a reprisal in respect of a job posting. Counsel: Daniel Leone
October 2023Arbitrator upholds three day suspension after employee found to have failed to ensure that all safety measures were in place before performing his job. Counsel: Daniel Leone
August 2023Arbitrator finds that weekly hours of work guarantee in Collective Agreement includes all hours worked, including overtime hours. Counsel: Daniel Leone
July 2023Arbitrator declines to reinstate employee who had harassed co-workers. Counsel: Daniel Leone.
June 2023Arbitrator concludes that School Board decision to award Instructional Lead position to teacher selected by School Board was appropriate in the circumstances; dismisses grievance. Counsel: Daniel Leone
March 2023Arbitrator declines to exercise discretion under Labour Relations Act to extend the timelines in the grievance procedure, resulting in dismissal of grievance. Counsel: Daniel Leone
February 2023Ontario Labour Relations Board confirms that individuals are employees of subcontractor and not general contractor, resulting in dismissal of Application for Certification. Counsel: Daniel Leone
January 2023Arbitrator declines to reinstate employee who had threatened co-workers. Counsel: Daniel Leone.
December 2022Interest arbitration decision. Counsel: Daniel Leone
September 2022Arbitrator upheld termination of employee who had failed to live within the geographic area required by his employer and necessary for his position. Counsel: Daniel Leone
June 2022Arbitrator concludes that employee not entitled to premium pay on weekend where employee did not work her full scheduled shift during the regular work week. Counsel: Daniel Leone
May 2022Arbitrator dismissed grievance claiming that employee entitled to be paid for time off work after he presented at work with symptoms of Covid-19 and was directed by employer to go home. Counsel: Daniel Leone
April 2022Arbitrator upheld employer decision to assign new duties or tasks to an existing job classification, without the need for a job posting. Counsel: Daniel Leone
February 2022Successfully argued before the Ontario Labour Relations Board that employers under a national collective agreement were not required to pay travel pay to employees where they maintained an on-site office. Counsel: Daniel Leone
January 2022Ontario Labour Relations Board finds that two individuals were performing labourers work on the Application date, resulting in the dismissal of an Application for Certification. Counsel: Daniel Leone
November 2021Ontario Labour Relations Board upholds Employer assignment of heat treating work to members of the Quality Control Council of Canada, rather than members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Counsel: Daniel Leone
November 2021Ontario Labour Relations Board upholds an Employer’s assignment of work to certain trades over another on the basis of economy and efficiency. Counsel: Daniel Leone
November 2021Arbitrator upholds termination of employee found to have engaged in the minor assault and name calling of a co-worker. Counsel: Daniel Leone
October 2021Arbitrator dismissed a Union grievance claiming that the Employer was required to reschedule a vacation period. The grievor had scheduled a vacation period in accordance with the Collective Agreement. Prior to the vacation period commencing, the grievor went on sick leave and continued to be eligible for sick leave during the vacation period and subsequent to the vacation period. The Employer elected not to cancel the scheduled vacation period and paid the grievor vacation pay, and not sick leave benefits, during the scheduled vacation period. Counsel: Daniel Leone
August 2021Arbitrator upheld the employer’s objection that a grievance claiming termination and severance pay was out of time. The Union filed a grievance more than three years after the point in time it should have been apparent to the Grievor that his employment with the Employer had come to an end. This delay was greater than both the five (5) day time limit in the Collective Agreement and the two (2) year time limit in the Employment Standards Act. Counsel: Daniel Leone
April 2021Arbitrator dismissed a grievance claiming that a school board was not permitted to declare redundancies where it had not used a redundancy formula contained in the Collective Agreement. The Arbitrator determined that the redundancy formula was not applicable in the circumstances and that the practice evidence called by the union was not sufficient to override the terms of the collective agreement. Counsel: Daniel Leone
March 2021Arbitrator dismissed a grievance claiming that an employee ought to have been paid statutory holiday pay and an attendance bonus where the employee elected to remain home after being asymptomatic of Covid-19 for three consecutive days. Counsel: Daniel Leone
February 2021Arbitrator dismissed a grievance challenging an employer policy restricting the number of employees carpooling and the employees’ placement within
the car. Counsel: Daniel Leone
Arbitrator dismissed a grievance claiming that the Employer had violated the Collective Agreement and its obligation to accommodate under the Human Rights Code by not maintaining a disabled employee’s rate of pay in a new classification. Counsel: Daniel Leone
June 2020Arbitrator dismissed a grievance and agreed that an Employer could post a vacancy by listing only the classification being filled and not the specific job within the classification that would be performed, thereby giving the Employer flexibility to move employees within jobs. Counsel: Daniel Leone
June 2020Arbitrator dismissed a grievance and concluded that an Employer had the right to schedule both mandatory regular and mandatory overtime shifts on weekends under its Collective Agreement. Counsel: Daniel Leone
January 2020Arbitrator dismissed a grievance claiming that an employee should be paid holiday pay where she failed to work the entirety of a shift on the day following a statutory holiday due to a faulty car battery. Counsel: Daniel Leone
August 2019Arbitrator dismissed a grievance claiming that an Employer was required to grant employees in a plant a lieu day, in addition to paying a premium for overtime, for hours worked on a statutory holiday. Counsel: Daniel Leone
August 2019Arbitrator concluded that Employer not responsible for Retail Sales Tax on the employee portion of a benefit premium. Counsel: Daniel Leone
November 2018Arbitrator upheld the termination of long service employee who had engaged in harassment in the workplace and aggressive behaviour. The behaviour included sexually charged comments as well as verbal threats. Counsel: Daniel Leone
July 2018Ontario Labour Relations Board concluded that a group of supervisors ought to be included in a bargaining unit, despite the fact that they were listed by the Employer on the Notice of Project as being the Employer Representative and responsible for the project. The effect of the supervisors being included in the bargaining unit was that the Union did not have sufficient membership cards signed to be certified. The Application for Certification was dismissed. Counsel: Daniel Leone
January 2018Arbitrator agreed that the Employer was not required to maintain an employee’s wage rate at a higher rate where the employee elected to exercise bumping rights under the Collective Agreement to a new, but lower paying, position. Counsel: Daniel Leone
December 2016Arbitrator dismissed a grievance claiming that Employer had inappropriately applied posting process resulting in the cancellation of a temporary vacancy. Counsel: Daniel Leone
July 2016Ontario Labour Relations Board terminates a Union’s bargaining rights with an Employer following a successful Termination Application. Counsel: Daniel Leone
May 2016Arbitrator dismissed a grievance and concluded that the Employer’s calculation of a retirement gratuity under the Collective Agreement had been correctly done. Counsel: Daniel Leone
July 2015Ontario Labour Relations Board concluded that a fibre-optic installer fell within Federal Jurisdiction, not Provincial Jurisdiction; thereby resulting in the dismissal of an Application for Certification. Counsel: Daniel Leone
June 2015Arbitrator dismissed a grievance claiming that a letter of understanding regarding employee complement could be extended by the statutory freeze provisions of the Labour Relations Act, 1995 and prevent the Employer in making layoffs. Counsel: Daniel Leone
May 2015An Arbitrator dismissed a grievance challenging the reasonableness of an Attendance Management Policy and its compliance with the Human Rights Code. Counsel: Daniel Leone
Industry recognition
Best Lawyers® in CanadaLabour and Employment Law
Canadian Legal Lexpert®Construction Labour Relations
Canadian Legal Lexpert®Labour Law – Management
News
The Best Lawyers™ in Canada 2023 recognizes 24 Mathews Dinsdale lawyers, from coast-to-cost, as leaders in the fields of Labour and Employment Law, Workers' Compensation Law, Education Law, Employee Benefits Law and Immigration Law.
Mathews Dinsdale lawyers from coast-to-coast recognized in the 2022 Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory as leaders in Labour Law, Employment Law, Construction Labour Relations, Occupational Health & Safety Law and Workers’ Compensation Law.
22 Mathews Dinsdale lawyers, from coast-to-coast, are recognized as leaders in The Best Lawyers™ in Canada 2022 in the fields of Labour and Employment Law, Workers' Compensation Law, Education Law, Employee Benefits Law and Immigration Law.
21 Mathews Dinsdale lawyers, from coast-to-coast, are recognized as leaders in The Best Lawyers™ in Canada 2021 in the fields of Labour and Employment Law, Education Law, Employee Benefits Law, Immigration Law, Workers’ Compensation Law.
Mathews Dinsdale Lawyers from coast-to-coast recognized in Best Lawyers in Canada 2020 as leaders in Labour and Employment Law, Education Law, Employee Benefits Law, Immigration Law, Workers’ Compensation Law.
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