Author: Northern Exposure

Noncompetes Often a Nonstarter

By Gulu Punia and Kyla Stott-Jess Signing a noncompete agreement can potentially provide some assurance that former employees will not start up or join the competing business across the street. In the absence of a noncompete agreement, employers often try to rely on their former employees’ fiduciary duties to combat competition. Unfortunately, Alberta’s Court of […]

EEOC Announces Record Year of Charges, Employee Relief

After years of budget constraints left the thinly staffed agency struggling under a hefty workload, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has bounced back, causing headaches for many employers. During the 2010 fiscal year, which ended September 30, the EEOC received a record number of charges — nearly 100,000, the most in the agency’s 45-year […]

Aspects of Attendance Management Program Ruled Discriminatory

By David Wong Attendance management programs themselves aren’t discriminatory — they just need to be carefully designed and properly applied. Such is the latest conclusion in continuing litigation between Coast Mountain Bus Company Ltd. and the Canadian Auto Workers, a battle over an attendance management program covering transit operators in the Greater Vancouver region in […]

Amazon Readers’ Best Business Books of 2010

Amazon has ranked the best business books of 2010 according to the site’s users. Here are the top 10. 1. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis. The sequel to #1 best-selling Liar’s Poker examines the issue of who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a […]

It’s a WUPHF World

Litigation Value: Probably no liability to Sabre, although several employees stood to lose their investments in Wuphf.com. This week’s episode of The Office focused on Dunder Mifflin/Sabre’s own budding social media king, Ryan Howard. We first learned about Ryan’s new social media company, WUPHF, last season when the most recent IT guy, “Glasses,” mined the […]

Decide, Commit, Then Deal with Results

Last night, my wife and I were discussing our respective personalities and those of our three children. I must say that my wife views some of my personality traits more harshly than I do. Things that I consider strengths don’t sound quite as positive when I hear her describe them. On some things we do […]

Health Care Reform Provisions Employers Need to Worry About

Have you been pulling your hair out for the past several months trying to determine what health care reform means for your organization? This article will provide you with a good starting point by outlining many of the major provisions of the health care reform package (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the […]

Paycheck Fairness Act Meets Its Demise

The much-hyped Paycheck Fairness Act has been shut down and is unlikely to be revived any time soon. The PFA (S. 182; H.R. 11) was initially introduced in 2008 as a companion to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The bill, which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2009, needed 60 votes […]

Arizona Voters Approve Medical Marijuana

By Dinita L. James, Gonzalez Law, LLC By a slim margin, Arizona has become the 15th state in the nation to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Proposition 203, or the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, trailed by about 6,000 votes in early election night returns. Yet, after 10 days of counting early voter […]