Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Special from Chicago—SHRM Annual Conference and Exhibition In yesterday’s Advisor, we got tips on privacy in the workplace from popular SHRM speaker, attorney Jonathan Segal. Today, his tips on searches, plus an introduction to the all-HR-in-one website, HR.BLR.com. Segal made his remarks at SHRM’s Annual Conference and Exhibition, held recently in Chicago. He is a […]
By Lindsey Taylor As we have discussed in previous editions, mandatory retirement across Canada is becoming a relic of the past. And employers are beginning to face the ripple effects. One of those ripple effects is benefits entitlement: Can Canadian employees over 65 be excluded from benefits? The answer isn’t clear. As a handful of […]
Employment lawyers aren’t allowed to just say “Document,” says attorney Allison West; they are required to say “Document, document, document.” There’s a good reason for this mantra—documentation is critical. Documentation is what gives you credibility, West says. It’s how you show the world that you did what you say you did. It shows that you […]
The Fair Labor Standards Act turns 75 today, June 25. When the law was enacted as part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies it established the minimum wage, overtime and other labor standards that still govern today’s workplaces. Those standards turned out to be just the “baby steps” of a law that has grown to […]
By Alix Herber and Jessica Schnurr Think an employee in Canada has to quit before suing the employer for constructive dismissal? Think again, says the Ontario Superior Court. An employee may pursue a constructive dismissal claim without quitting. Traditionally, faced with a unilateral change to a term or condition of employment, an employee had two […]
Because many mental disabilities are hard to spot, hard to diagnose, and hard to handle, employers may either give too much attention (fear, stigma, termination) or too little (pretending they don’t exist). Either approach is problematic.
By Antoine Aylwin and Edith Charbonneau Your employee quits his job and returns his smartphone. It contains information that shows he was scheming against you. What can you do with this? Could you use the e-mails found in the smartphone as evidence? This question was recently ruled upon by the Quebec Superior Court in Les […]
This article series highlights the requirements for determining Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) eligibility. The last installment focused on what employers need to do to stay complaint. Another twist in the FMLA family care determination occurs when an employee requests leave to care for an adult child.
A former employee of a Massachusetts-based health insurer pleaded guilty to one count of illegal disclosure of Social Security numbers, after federal prosecutors alleged she stole plan members’ SSNs and other personal identifying information as part of a scheme to defraud the government. Emeline Lubin faces a possible prison sentence of up to five years […]
By Louise Béchamp As we reported previously, employers in Canada’s federal sector have had the right to dismiss employees without cause with one caveat. Only if the dismissal was not “unjust” within the meaning of section 240 of the Canada Labour Code. In Wilson v. Atomic Energy of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal determined […]