Tag: Employment law

New union election rules yield much quicker elections

by Tony Puckett Union election petitions and quicker elections have been the immediate effect of the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) new election rules, which took effect April 14. The new rules were intended to speed up the election process through quicker deadlines and delaying some hearings on certain issues until after the election. Unions […]

Game of Thrones: Trial by combat

Winter is coming, but not soon enough for those of us eager for Season 6 of Game of Thrones.  While we wait, I’d like to rewind to one of my favorite episodes from Season 4 involving Tyrion’s trial for the murder of his nephew. As you may recall, Tyrion’s long-time rivalry with his sister, Cersei, […]

Employer permitted to post employee photos in workplace

by Alexis Charpentier The right to privacy is constantly evolving. And that has implications in the workplace. Just how far employees’ privacy rights extend is constantly at issue. Recently an arbitrator in Quebec had to decide whether employees’ privacy rights extended so far that they could object to their employer’s decision to post their photos, […]

DOL issues updated FMLA forms

by Amanda Shelby The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issues forms for employers to use in the administration of Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave. On the heels of the old forms expiring earlier this year, the DOL has issued new forms. The revisions update the expired forms to reference the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination […]

Employers urged to plan now for changes new overtime rules will bring

A regulatory change expected to make some 5 million more employees eligible for overtime pay likely won’t take effect for a year or more, but employers are urged to plan now how they will cope with the change.  David Fortney and Judith Kramer, attorneys with Fortney & Scott, LLC in Washington, D.C., recently conducted a […]

To kill Atticus Finch? HR pros aren’t afraid of the truth

It’s been a long time since I, like nearly any person educated in the United States, read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Now, like many other readers out there, it’s back on my bedside table since Ms. Lee consented to publication of her other manuscript, Go Set a Watchman. I haven’t tackled it yet, […]

BC Court of Appeal takes a narrow view of the SCC’s New Labour Trilogy

By Christopher Pigott In a previous article, we reported on the Supreme Court of Canada’s “New Labour Trilogy,” a set of three landmark constitutional law decisions released in January 2015 that raised questions about basic aspects of Canada’s labor relations system. Unsurprisingly, the decisions sparked a huge debate in the Canadian labor law community as […]

It’s August and the office is freezing: Why is that and what should HR do?

The dog days of summer generally aren’t known for temperatures that bring on bouts of shivering—unless you’re among the many who work in office buildings that are not so much air-conditioned as they are refrigerated.  Office thermostat wars can be an issue year-round, but a recent study hitting the news gives freezing workers more ammunition […]

tax

ACA’s ‘Cadillac tax’ is looking more like a ‘Toyota tax’

by Brandon Long For several years now, employers have spent a great deal of time focusing on the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) play-or-pay mandate. Numerous articles have been written and numerous educational seminars have been given discussing issues such as who is subject to the mandate, what the definition of a full-time employee is, and how […]

Deflategate: Tom Brady’s fumble provides valuable lesson about spoliation of evidence

Tom Brady is one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, but he fumbled big time when he ordered the destruction of his cell phone before he was to be questioned about his involvement in the deflation of footballs during last season’s AFC championship game. Importantly, prior to the phone’s destruction, NFL investigators had asked […]