Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
McCarthy Tetrault Q. When a company holds a social outing for employees and alcohol is served, what are the legal risks? How can potential liability be minimized? A. Parties and other social events provide employers with an opportunity to reward employees and let them interact with coworkers outside of the office. Unfortunately, they also create […]
(Updated October 2008) A federal appeals court affirmed the dismissal of a disability discrimination claim based on perfume sensitivity. It found that the employer reasonably accommodated the employee by taking various measures, including prohibiting perfume in the workplace. HR Guide to Employment Law: A practical compliance reference manual covering 14 topics, including the Americans with […]
By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Join BLR’s Founder and CEO on a guided tour through the newly upgraded and redesigned HR website, HR.BLR.com I tend to use this space to write about management challenges and HR issues, but let me assure you, I’m no ivory-tower CEO. As my people will tell you, I’m […]
by Donovan Plomp McCarthy Tetrault In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of Canada has decided collective bargaining is a right protected in the national constitution. The court’s extension of “freedom of association” under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to include a right to collective bargaining is a reversal of previous Supreme Court decisions.
by Tara McPhail McCarthy Tetrault Canadian human rights laws require employers to accommodate employees and customers with disabilities up to a point. What point? The point at which the accommodation would constitute “undue hardship” on the employer. But what makes an undue hardship? A recent Supreme Court of Canada decision appears to set a high […]
Storing employment records electronically involves a whole new set of rules and cautions, compared with doing it on paper. A special October 31 BLR audio conference will tell you what you need to know. As yesterday’s Daily Advisor article on noncompetes pointed out, there are documents that have to do with former employees that can […]
Noncompete agreements, once exclusively for highly paid execs, are now being used with even blue collar workers. Are they useful? Are they legal? How do you keep them that way? Here’s the information you need. It seemed a simple enough transaction. The sports broadcasting network, ESPN, had decided to change security service vendors. One company […]
In California, an employer with 25 or more employees is prohibited from discharging or in any way discriminating or retaliating against an employee who is a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault because that person takes time off from work for any of these reasons: to seek medical attention for injuries caused by the […]
A federal judge has ordered Southern California Maid Services and Carpet Cleaning, based in Gardena, to pay $3,467,789 in back wages, plus $1,058,973 in liquidated damages, to 385 current and former low-wage domestic workers who were misclassified as independent contractors. The court’s action resolves a lawsuit filed against the employer by the U.S. Department of […]
United Healthcare of Florida, Inc., has agreed to shell out $1.8 million in back pay and damages to resolve a same-sex harassment and retaliation lawsuit. The suit, filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), charged that a male regional vice president subjected a male senior account executive at the company’s Sunrise, Fla., office […]