Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
By Ian Campbell There seems to have been an increase in cases where employees in Canada directly or publicly have challenged their supervisors or senior management. Maybe this is because of an increasing belief in their actual or perceived rights. Of course employees have the right and should be encouraged to raise legitimate workplace concerns […]
By Lyne Duhaime On June 21, 2011, in Canadian Jewish Congress v. Polger, the Court of Appeal of Quebec overturned a decision of the Superior Court that had ordered an employer to pay millions of dollars in pension benefits based only on an alleged practice and without proper written documentation to that effect. The pension […]
by Sylmarie Arizmendi of Arizmendi & Sanfilippo Often U.S. employers doing business in Puerto Rico assume that certain basic elements of the employment relationship are the same in Puerto Rico as they are stateside. That leads employers to expose themselves to liability because of differences in the employment laws. This article highlights four essential differences […]
by Gary S. Fealk Businesses often find it advantageous to hire independent contractors to perform a variety of duties in place of employees. Using independent contractors can reduce expenses for payroll taxes and benefits, avoid the impact of laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and […]
By Maria Giagilitsis Ontario’s highest court recently ruled that an employer’s right to buy back a senior executive’s shares was triggered on his termination date — not the end of the reasonable notice period. Paul R. Love had argued for the later date. His shares had substantially increased in value during the notice period. Love […]
The worst-case scenario for any claim involving an employment-related decision is the “smoking gun” piece of evidence that destroys the case. It could be a notation in an interviewer’s notes that the applicant was “old” or a supervisor’s note indicating that the recently terminated employee “complained about safety issues a lot.” Because you generally have […]
Employment law attorney Mike Maslanka reviews Bob Pritchett’s Fire Somebody Today: And Other Surprising Tactics for Making Your Business a Success. In his book Fire Someone Today: And Other Surprising Tactics for Making Your Business a Success Bob Pritchett nails why managers are always afraid to fire someone: They fear admitting they made a mistake […]
By Richard L. Rainey We often tell clients that not all lawsuits are filed because an employee has evidence of discrimination or believes she was discriminated against. Rather, sometimes they’re filed because the employee thinks she was treated unfairly. That concept is illustrated in a recent case out of Durham. Background Iretha Lawrence, an African […]
By Christopher Ferguson and Stephen Acker In 2010, Jen-Hsun Huang’s salary was $1. No, he’s not a fresh-faced intern. Rather, Huang is the CEO of Nvidia Inc., the graphics and mobile chipmaker with Intel-sized ambitions. In that context, $1 seems like a meager reward. You would imagine that out of the firm’s $844 million in […]
By Maria Giagilitsis Along with the extraordinary benefits accompanying today’s rapidly advancing technology comes an increasing vulnerability for Canadian employers who strive to hire the “best of the best” information technology groups. On the one hand, “wizard like” computer skills are an invaluable asset — they can lead a company’s growth while sharpening its competitive […]