ECPA moving forward
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
The Electronic Commerce Protection Act (ECPA) may move out of committee with few amendments. Have critics been deterred by the National Do Not Call List debacle?
Read the rest of this post »Archive for October, 2009
Social media = time management? (Part 1)
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
To a casual observer, it might appear that time management has fallen to the wayside at many workplaces today: employees work well beyond their scheduled hours, including while on lunch breaks, during leisure time and social events and even on vacation. But with proper scheduling, time management should prevent work from expanding beyond regular work hours—as was the case before the Internet age. Instead, in the “knowledge economy”, where the smart phone rules, scheduled work hours have become nearly meaningless.
Read the rest of this post »The four-day workweek
Monday, October 26th, 2009
The reality of today’s workplaces is that employees are stressed because they not only face excess work duties, but they work long hours, which keeps them away from their homes, families and leisure for long periods of time. According to many HR and legal experts, the results of overworked employees are distraction and low productivity in the company, forcing employers to demand even more hours from their employees, among other things. Everybody I talk to seems to think that the solution of a four-day workweek should enhance employee effectiveness and productivity, reduce stress, improve employees’ enjoyment of work, and balance their work/life.
Read the rest of this post »Neutering net neutrality
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
In its net neutrality decision, the CRTC says “throttling if necessary, but not necessarily throttling.”
Read the rest of this post »Deadline looms for accessibility standards
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Public sector organizations in the province of Ontario are working toward the January 1, 2010 deadline for implementing the first stage of compliance to ensure accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities in all areas of daily life. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) outlines the new customer service standards businesses and other organizations in Ontario must attain to make the provision of their goods and services more accessible to people with disabilities. Private sector and non-profit organizations need to comply by January 1, 2012.
Read the rest of this post »Is social media recruiting a discrimination land mine?
Monday, October 19th, 2009
Here’s a question about an issue that is becoming increasingly relevant:
By using social networking sites—such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn—to search for and recruit employees, are employers discriminating against groups that are less likely to use those services?
Read the rest of this post »Trucker fined for smoking in his vehicle considered at work
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
This month, an Ontario truck driver was fined $305 for smoking in his vehicle, because it is also considered his workplace. Under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, smoking is prohibited at all workplaces in the province, and this includes a vehicle that is deemed a place of work in the Act. This makes me wonder…
Read the rest of this post »Decriminalizing the oldest profession in the world
Friday, October 9th, 2009
We were reading some very interesting articles in the media regarding the constitutional challenge to prostitution laws by sex-trade workers. These articles are saying that the law makes no sense. Alan Young, the Osgoode Hall law professor representing the women, notes that the law permits prostitution itself, but prohibits “all incidental transactions involved in prostitution”. Consequently, they want the Court to strike down all the Criminal Code sections pertaining to solicitation, to effectively decriminalize prostitution—as a result, making the sex trade a viable profession in it’s own right.
Read the rest of this post »Providing reference letters: should you or shouldn’t you – or does it make a difference? Part II
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
In the vast majority of cases, there is absolutely no reason for an employer not to provide a positive letter of reference for a dismissed employee. As discussed below, this conclusion is based upon two general points:
1) There is little or no risk in providing an honest, good faith reference;
2) Organizations can benefit financially if a dismissed employee finds new employment quickly.
H1N1 Nova Scotia–Questions from employers
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
As flu season bears down upon us, the H1N1 flu virus, or the “heiny” virus, (as some have dubbed it) is becoming a hot topic for employers and HR practitioners.
Read the rest of this post »Providing reference letters: should you or shouldn’t you – or does it make a difference? Part I
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
In the vast majority of cases, there is absolutely no reason for an employer not to provide a positive letter of reference for a dismissed employee. As discussed below, this conclusion is based upon two general points:
1) There is little or no risk in providing an honest, good faith reference;
2) Organizations can benefit financially if a dismissed employee finds new employment quickly.
Social media in the workplace: Oh what to do!? (part 2)
Monday, October 5th, 2009
Some companies have applied traditional methods to the problem of social media at work: the soft approach attempts to monitor and regulate via policies; and the hard approach simply slams the door on employee access and use with a heavy hand. Neither of these works particularly well. The former will almost certainly lead to employee confusion and efforts—either intentional or not—to circumvent the policy, and the latter will likely result in discontented employees finding other ways to work around the blockade. In addition, both are difficult, if not impossible, to enforce fully; and attempts to bypass or evade controls could even lead to damage of physical or virtual IT resources.
Read the rest of this post »Romance (sex) in the workplace – the Letterman case
Monday, October 5th, 2009
Last week, television talk show host David Letterman acknowledged on his program that he had sexual relationships with several female employees and that someone tried to extort money from him under the threat of making the relationships public. Letterman referred the matter to the police and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and after an investigation, another employee of the Letterman’s broadcasting network, CBS, was arrested on attempted grand larceny. I don’t know about you but this is a great example of how romance (sex) in the workplace can go terribly wrong!
Read the rest of this post »Introducing guest blogger Stuart Rudner
Monday, October 5th, 2009
It’s a pleasure to welcome Stuart Rudner as a guest blogger. He will be blogging about human resources, employment and labour law issues.
Read the rest of this post »The cost of security breaches in Canada
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
There’s a new report from TELUS in partnership with the Rotman School of Management that helps quantify the cost of IT security breaches to Canadian companies. The report, based on a survey of more than 600 IT security professionals in Canada found that: IT security breaches cost the average organization an estimated $834,000 in [...]
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Recent Comments
Andrew Taillon:
Thanks Chris. I would suggest that the confusion arises from the way damages were...
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