There are, of course, many differences between the way the two countries deal with the employment relationship. However, those can all be boiled down to perspective. Since America, even through this self-created economic turmoil, believes in the invisible hand of the market, which given enough time will correct all wrongs, it stands to reason that they would not look too kindly at regulating the interaction between employees and employers. Why should an employee need rights? If an employer treats them badly, they will leave, and find work elsewhere. The invisible hand works. Canada, on the other hand, believes that there are minimum standards that ALL workplaces should meet, and any attempt to circumvent these is generally seen in bad faith and punished.
As such, there are no such things as implied work contracts in America. Unless it specifies a time line in the employment contract (should the employee sign one), it is assumed that the relationship is brand new from one moment to the next, and that unless basic human rights are violated in easily traceable ways, the invisible hand will be the only judge of whether a company's hiring/employing/terminating employees is competitive. After all, a good candidate can pretty much write their own checks, right?
Canadian law assumes that once a working relationship has started, the employee and employer immediately have certain rights, even if no contract is signed. They have a right to a reasonable amount of honesty from each other (e.g. don't lie on a resume or about how many hours are expected). They have a reasonable expectation of mutual respect, of vacation time, of not abusing drugs in the workplace, etc etc. Common sense things that essentially have been deemed by courts to be so fundamental to any employment relationship, that even if a contract was signed without any of these clauses in it, it will be implied that both parties wanted the clause in there, they just forgot or something.
Having this difference makes a huge impact on the relationship because for one, a Canadian employee doesn't have to worry about arbitrarily being fired any day they walk into the workplace. They're not immune, but if they employer doesn't have a good reason, at least you'll be compensated. It also levels the power balance between the board room and the assembly line, and since the invisible hand seems to forget itself when the economy slows and jobs are few and far in between, its nice to have a back up - just in case.
