Tag: Employment law

Employee Performance Evaluation: Holly Flax

Last night, my television was playing a marathon of “Office” repeats, leaving us without new catastrophes to dissect. So in an attempt to find something to share with you folks, I contacted my mole in Sabre’s corporate human resources department to see what’s new down in Tallahassee. As it turns out, I have a special treat for […]

Unemployed Job Applicants Pose Practical and Legal Dilemmas for HR

Employers have started hiring again and are often overwhelmed with huge numbers of resumes, even for entry-level positions. Some companies have decided that an effective way to identify the best candidates is to refuse to consider job applicants who are currently unemployed. But a number of human resources professionals, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), […]

A Shaved Head and Microwave Food Policy — Human Rights Violations?

By Sara Parchello It’s amazing the issues that pop up in front of human rights tribunals across Canada. Recently, the Manitoba Human Rights Commission was asked whether it is discriminatory to fire an employee for shaving her head. On an equally interesting level, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal was asked whether it is discriminatory to […]

The Pack(er) is Back!

Litigation Value: At the end of the day, shockingly little, given that it was a Packer-based episode. So who has two thumbs and thinks Sabre/Dunder-Mifflin dodged a bullet after Todd Packer returned to The Office?  This guy! Tonight’s episode finds Michael’s BFF Packer looking to come in from the road and reclaim “his” desk (which […]

Risk of Disclosure of Information on Stolen Laptop Could Support Employees’ Claims

Let’s say you’re an employer that maintains unencrypted employee information on a laptop computer and the computer gets stolen. Could you be liable for the possible harm that could come to employees if their personal information were disclosed? In a recent decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that affected employees might have […]

Independent Contractors Considered Workers for Health and Safety Purposes

By Rosalind Cooper For years employers across Canada have struggled with the difference between independent contractors and employees. Individuals believed to be independent contractors are often classified as employees after their relationship ends, leading to liability for employment-related severance and other amounts. The courts, human rights tribunals, and other administrative tribunals are constantly grappling with […]

Threat Level Midnight, a/k/a There’s An Hour of My Life I’ll Never Get Back

It was another nonproductive workday at The Office. After 10 years, Michael’s little known, self-written, self-produced, self-directed, and self-starred-in movie, Threat Level Midnight, finally debuted in Scranton. Despite a private staff-only viewing a few years back in which the movie was mistakenly taken for a comedy (it’s really Michael’s rip-off of James Bond and Austin Powers […]

EEOC Vows Renewed Vigilance Against Age Discrimination

The big news last fall from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was that  for the first year in history, retaliation claims had surpassed race discrimination claims as the most filed complaint in 2010. But the sleeper issue employers could be grappling with very soon is a significant increase in age discrimination claims. Recently the […]

Employee Stock Options: Get Them Right

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 […]

Let’s Get It On…

Litigation Value: none now, but plenty in the making. Studio 54 was a nightclub in New York City with infamously loose rules related to sexual expression. Rumor has it that back-room rendezvous were the norm. Sabre/Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton office may be trying to give the club a run for its money. Dwight Schrute reminded us that […]