Month: October 2013

Canadian employers hit with record-setting occupational health and safety fines

By Norm Keith With the introduction of the Bill C-45 amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada, occupational health and safety regulation, prosecution and conviction have been on the rise across the country. Recently, Vale Canada Limited and Metron Construction were given record fines in occupational health and safety and criminal negligence convictions, respectively.

free-speech

A horse with no claim

Some colorful (ahem) corners of the Internet were abuzz this week after a report surfaced that an anonymous adult male fan of the cartoon show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was fired from his job after admitting his fandom to his coworkers. The firing of this “brony” (and let’s just assume for the sake of this […]

Fire Drills Aren’t Just for Fun

October 6 to 12 is National Fire Prevention Week (http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/fire-prevention-week). Inspire your employees to participate in fire drill training by sharing the news about how a failure to train and drill on evacuation routes earned Hawaii companies large fines. The Hawaii State Department of Labor and Industrial Relations’ (DLIR) Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Division […]

Employee Leave Survey Results In—How Do You Compare?

  Personal or “small necessities” leave is offered by 30% of respondents. 99.6% offer 6 or more paid holidays. 29.4% allow some form of leave donation or leave sharing. Scheduling workloads around leave is the biggest challenge.   Leave Types Leave offered Percent offering 6 or more paid holidays per year 99.6% Paid vacation time, […]

No Return-to-Work Form, No Guarantee Job Will Be Waiting

An employee’s refusal to provide acceptable return-to-work documentation after a medical leave of absence may be viewed as a voluntary resignation, even if that individual has a disability as defined under the Americans with Disabilities Act. This assertion helped the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirm a lower federal court’s summary judgment in favor […]

Tales from the healthcare exchange portal

by Jason Lacey On October 1, we reached a big milestone for the implementation of healthcare reform: the opening of the public insurance exchanges. OK, so the day was largely symbolic, and nothing really took effect. It just happened to be the first day we could take a look at what’s available through these new […]

If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em

By now, you’ve probably seen (or at least heard about) Marina Shifrin’s viral “quit-eo,” in which she announces her plans to depart her job at a Taiwanese video animating company via homemade dance video – filmed at 4:30 am in her soon-to-be-former, cubicle-filled office:

Disgruntled employees: What are the risks, what are the remedies?

HR professionals know the tips and tricks to keep from making bad hires. There’s never any certainty, but smart professionals armed with strong interviewing skills and solid job descriptions stand a better than good chance of weeding out bad hires on the front end. But what does the savvy HR pro do about “bad quits” […]