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Archive for April, 2010

A very expensive case of bad-faith termination and sick pay fraud

Friday, April 30th, 2010

I recently read an interesting case about sick pay fraud and bad-faith termination. After reading the employer’s version of what happened, I was pretty convinced…

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Tags: absence, arbitration, bad faith termination, Canada, collective agreement, disability management, dishonesty, employee fraud, employee surveillance, employment law, evidence, fraud, injury, lie, ontario, sick leave, sick pay, termination, video surveillance, workplace surveillance, wrongful dismissal
Posted in Employment Standards, Human Resources | 1 Comment »

Simon Cowell in HR?

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

I recently read in HRmagazine.co.uk that 82 percent of survey respondents said they thought the Britain’s Got Talent and American Idol judge, Simon Cowelll, would be perfect for a career in human resources…

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Tags: Dave Ulrich, HR, HR management, HR strategies, Human Resources, Human Resources Champions
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources | 2 Comments »

What exactly constitutes a ‘disability’? (Part III)

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

What exactly constitutes a “disability” under human rights legislation?

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Tags: Canada, definition of disability, Disability, duty to accommodate, employment law, human rights, what constitutes a disability, workplace disability
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

Charities, not-for-profits and the Income Tax Act: recent developments

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

I recently read a couple of articles dealing with the relationship between not-for-profit organizations and the Canada Revenue Agency, particularly with respect to fraudulent charitable tax receipts and what non-profits can do about accidental profits.

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Tags: Canada Revenue Agency, charities, CRA, false statements, Income Tax Act, non-profit, non-profit organizations, not-for-profit organizations, not-for-profit policypro, tax receipts, tax-exempt status
Posted in Internal Controls, Not-for-Profit | Make a Comment »

The new age of workplace gossip – TMI!

Monday, April 26th, 2010

I’ve discussed workplace gossip here before, and what bosses can do to prevent it or at least reduce the potential harm, but there are a couple of hyper-modern developments that I didn’t get into: reality television and the Internet. These two things have created a culture of “sharing”, for lack of a better word, that encourages people at play or work to divulge the most mundane and private details of their lives to others—the kind of information that one previously might only have shared with family or best friends.

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Tags: employee relations, Employer liability, gossip, oversharing, personal information, privacy, social media
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Slaw.ca: Can Quebec Bill 94 withstand any Charter challenge?

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

While Canada perceives it’s role as one of accommodating all forms of religious expression in a neutral manner, Quebec has decided to apply a more restrictive and formally secular approach. At a general level, this means the official separation of church and state. However, this proposed policy of secularity (bill 94) clashes with the religious traditions of many recent immigrants to Canada. To summarize, Bill 94 would require anyone providing or receiving government services to do so with their face uncovered for reasons of identification, security and communication. This includes services from hospitals, schools, universities, and daycare centres that receive provincial funding.

Read the full article on Slaw.ca.

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Tags: Bill 94, burqa, discrimination, gender equality, human rights, kirpan, niqab, Quebec, reasonable accommodation, religious freedom, religious symbols, slaw.ca
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

First Reference Talks… on your phone!

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

We recently added another way that our readers can access content on the First Reference blog: we’ve optimized it for smartphones and some other portable devices. If you have a Blackberry Storm, an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch, a Palm Pre, an HTC Dream or Cupcake, or a Sanyo Incognito, or a phone that runs on Android or WebOS, you can experience our content in an easy-to-read and easy-to-access format that should load more quickly than ever.

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Tags: mobile content, smartphones, technology
Posted in Announcements | Make a Comment »

Court of Appeal rules on evidence of failure to mitigate

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Advancing a defence of failure to mitigate in a wrongful dismissal claim requires evidence that…

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Tags: canadian employment law, Dismissal, duty to mitigate, employment law, failure to mitigate, Ontario Court of Appeal, termination, wrongful dismissal
Posted in Employment Standards, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

OSC issues notice re disclosure of corporate governance and environmental matters

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

The Ontario Securities Commission has announced that it will undertake a review of corporate governance practices and environmental disclosure requirements in 2010, as part of a broader corporate sustainability reporting initiative.

What’s the significance of this announcement?

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Tags: Canada, climate change, corporate governance, corporate governance practices, corporate social responsibility, CSR, disclosure, environmental disclosure, environmental matters, FAPP, Finance and Accounting PolicyPro, Ontario Securities Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission
Posted in Environmental Law, Internal Controls | Make a Comment »

Young and new workers focus of four-month enforcement blitz

Monday, April 19th, 2010

The Ministry of Labour has announced that the safety of young and new workers will be the focus of a four-month enforcement health and safety blitz across Ontario beginning in May 2010. According to the government, young and new workers in Ontario are four times more likely to be injured during the first month of employment than at any other time.

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Tags: enforcement blitz, health and safety, health and safety enforcement, occupational health and safety, Ontario Ministry of Labour, Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act, safe at work, young and new workers
Posted in Health and Safety, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

EI will rise by a lot!

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Several media outlets have reported that Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer announced a sharp rise in employment insurance rate. This stems from the recently tabled report: Projecting Employment Insurance Premium Revenues and Expenses made available on April 15, 2010…

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Tags: 2010, 2011, Canada, EI premium rates, EI rates, Employment Insurance Act, Employment Insurance premium rates, Employment insurance rates, Parliamentary Budget Officer, Payroll, Projecting Employment Insurance Premium Revenues and Expenses
Posted in Payroll, Source Deductions and Reporting | 1 Comment »

Alberta tries again to ban the use of cellphones while driving

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

The reliance on cellphones has led to an increase in talking on a cellphone while driving. Statistics show that driving while talking or texting on a cellphone is leading to driver distractions that cause car accidents. That’s why, on April 14, 2010, the Alberta government introduced…

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Tags: 2010, Alberta, ban on cellphone use, Bill 16, cellphone use, Employer liability, the Traffic Safety (Distracted Driving) Amendment Act, Traffic Safety Act, vicarious liability
Posted in Employment Standards, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

Are all those log-in passwords worth your time?

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

I’m sure this news will come as a relief to many computer and Internet users out there: a recent study by a researcher at Microsoft has found that many IT security measures—those things we love to hate like having to change passwords every three months or having individual passwords for a dozen different work accounts—simply don’t provide good value for the time and effort they involve, not to mention the bad habits they often cause!

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Tags: automatic update, firewall, information technology, IT controls, IT security, Microsoft, passwords, phishing, security, security-fatigue, virus protection
Posted in Human Resources, Internal Controls, IT, Privacy and Security, Privacy and Security | 1 Comment »

Employee expense fraud

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Employee fraud is on the rise, as organizations cut back on staff, and their internal controls slacken as a result. However, the monetary loss is just the beginning of the problem. A recent white paper from Grant Thornton LLP notes that, “Failure to crack down on this unethical—and indeed criminal—behaviour blurs the line between right and wrong. It creates a culture of entitlement that can extend across the business. And it can open the door to more significant corporate theft.”

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Tags: corporate theft, employee expenses, employee fraud, employee relations, employee theft, expense controls, FAPP, Finance and Accounting PolicyPro, Grant Thornton, policies and procedures, workplace policies
Posted in Benefits, Employee Relations, Human Resources, Internal Controls, Payroll | Make a Comment »

Terminating an employee with a disability (Part II)

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Is it possible to terminate an employee who suffers from a disability and not commit a human rights violation? I recently read a case that made it clear that employers can do so when there is a justifiable reason to terminate not involving the disability, or after all efforts to accommodate the employee have been exhausted. But employers must be able to show this with evidence.

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Tags: BC human rights tribunal, Disability, duty to accommodate, employment, human rights, human rights act, terminating an employee with a disability, terminations
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights | 3 Comments »

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