 | Dr. Kenneth Wm. ThornicroftProfessor; Law and Employment Relations | JD(LLB), UBC Law School; PhD, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University |
| Office: BEC 206 Phone: 250-721-6424 Email: kthornic@uvic.ca |
Expertise
- Arbitration and dispute resolution
- Constitutional and Administrative Law
- Employment contracts
- Labour and employment law
- Labour relations
- Organizational restructuring (employment and labour law issues)
Background
Kenneth Wm. Thornicroft is a Professor of Law & Labour Relations with the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business. He is also a member of the teaching faculty of the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. Dr. Thornicroft holds a law degree (JD/LLB 1979) from the UBC and a doctorate (PhD 1996) in Labour and Human Resource Policy/Employment Law from the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He has received numerous teaching awards including six separate “Professor of the Year” awards. He has also received several other research and scholarship awards.
Dr. Thornicroft’s professional practice is restricted to arbitration and alternative dispute resolution. He is a former member of the BC Arbitration Review Panel, the BC Parole Board, the BC Employment Standards Tribunal and is currently a member of the BC Property Assessment Appeal Board and the Delta Police Board and is currently a member of the BC Property Assessment Appearl Board, the BC Employment and Assistance Appeal Tribunal, the Employment Standards Tribunal and is an adjudicator with the BC Ministry of Education and Student Appeals Branch. An active arbitrator and mediator, Dr. Thornicroft has acted as a third-party neutral (both as an arbitrator and a mediator) in a variety of contexts including employment disputes in both the union and nonunion sectors, shareholder and partnership disputes, commercial tenancy disputes, major personal injury claims and franchise disputes. Over the past two decades, Dr. Thornicroft has served as a third-party neutral in several thousand disputes.
Dr. Thornicroft is the author of over 70 journal articles, conference papers, book reviews and book chapters; his writing has been published in, among other outlets, The Advocate, Business & the Contemporary World, Canadian Bar Review, Education & Law Journal, Employee Relations, Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Journal of Collective Negotiations in the Public Sector, Journal of Individual Employment Rights, Journal of Labor Research, Labour Arbitration Yearbook, Labor Law Journal, Labor Studies Journal, Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations and Women in Management Review. He is the co-author of Employment Covenants and Confidential Information, published by Butterworths/Lexis-Nexis.
Dr. Thornicroft’s current research focuses on employee/er rights issues, the grievance arbitration process and the interpretation and enforcement of employment contracts.
Selected
publications
*Thornicroft, K.Wm. (Forthcoming). The assessment of 'reasonable notice' by Canadian Appellate Courts: 2000-2011. Canadian Labour & Employment Law Journal.
*Thornicroft, K.Wm. (Forthcoming). Gender bias in the negotiation of severance pay in lieu of "reasonable notice". Journal of Workplace Rights.
Thornicroft, K.Wm. (2011). Chartering a new teacher bargaining relationship in British Columbia? Education & Law Journal, 21(1), 75-85.
Thornicroft, K.Wm. (2009). The arbitration process (Ch.5) and evidentiary issues in arbitration (Ch.6). In R.M. Snyder (Ed.), Collective agreement arbitration in Canada (4th ed.). Markham, Ontario: Butterworths Canada Ltd.
Thornicroft, K.Wm. (2009). The grievance arbitration process and workplace conflict resolution (Ch.13). In M. Gunderson & D.G. Taras, (eds.), Canadian labour and employment relations (6th ed.) (361-382). Toronto, ON: Pearson Education Canada.
Steele, G.K. & Thornicroft, K.Wm. (2009). Employment obligations and confidential information (2nd ed.). Markham, ON: Butterworths Canada Ltd.
Thornicroft, K.Wm. (2008). Enforcing employment contact claims under the employment standards act. Employment Standards Tribunal Conference. (Feb. 22, 2208, Vancouver, BC).
Thornicroft, K.Wm. (2006). The employment standards act: The successorship and common employer provisions. Employment Standards Tribunal Conference. (Sept. 10, 2008, Vancouver, BC).
Recognition
& awards
- University of Victoria, Faculty of Business Award for Teaching Excellence, 2006
- University of Victoria, Commerce Students’ Association Professor of the Year Award (1997)
- University of Victoria, Board of Advisors Teaching Excellence Award (1993)
Teaching
- Business Law (BCom—Minor)
- Employment and Labour Law (MBA, BCom)
- Industrial Relations (BCom)
- Legal Issues in Management (BCom)
- Managing Legal Risks (MBA)
Featured
news
Dr. Ken Thornicroft is a professor at the University of Victoria, who studies the regulation of business, and employment. In this Faces of UVic Research video, he explains the benefits of his problem-based applied research, which is neutral and based on empirical evidence, and can influence decision makers to rethink their methods. In this video he explains his current research into female biased wrongful dismissal awards.
