Tag: Employment law

It’s Not Easy Being Green

Litigation Value: Front-row seat for the epic Michael v. Oscar battle of the wits = $0; coffee from the office coffee bar = a shocking $8 per cup;  watching Dwight fail miserably at drinking coffee with his toes = priceless. In this week’s episode, Oscar and Michael battle it out to see who is the […]

OSHA Says Employers Must Ban Texting while Driving

by Boyd Byers Recently, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced an initiative to combat work-related distracted driving. OSHA’s first point of focus is texting while driving. Audio Conference: Monitoring Employee E-Mail, Texting and Facebook: What’s Off Limits Safety concerns prompt new laws Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of worker fatalities, and […]

Behind the Scenes

With The Office closed (i.e., not airing a new episode) when it became this blogger’s turn to write again, he found himself with a dearth of fresh material.  So, instead of quantifying hypothetical litigation value, this post will tie up a loose end from his last entry in October, when he cryptically referred to “where […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Employees Fired for Facebook Postings

By Maria Giagilitsis It’s becoming more and more clear that an employee’s use of social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace may lead to justifiable discipline by an employer. On October 22, 2010, the British Columbia Labour Relations Board released its decision in West Coast Mazda (d.b.a. West Coast Detail & Accessory Centre) […]

Accommodating Mental Illness

By Alix Herber and Hadiya Roderique In Canada, employers have a duty to accommodate individuals suffering from a disability to the level of undue hardship. In the case of an employee with a physical disability, it often can be relatively straightforward to identify accommodations that can be implemented. In contrast, the accommodation of mental illness […]

2010 Elections — a Game Changer in Congress

by David S. Fortney and J. Robert Brame Editors, Federal Employment Law Insider The historic 2010 elections for the 112th Congress will significantly alter how Washington operates. The Republicans gained more seats than during any election since 1948, and we now move forward with a politically divided government following two years of Democratic control of […]