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Archive for August, 2010

The bright future of payroll

Monday, August 16th, 2010

A recent issue of the Canadian Payroll Association’s magazine Dialogues looked at how payroll technology will be changing in the next few years, and what that will mean for the payroll industry—and the businesses it supports. Turns out, the next few years are looking pretty rosy for payroll professionals. Here are some insights.

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Tags: attendance, Canadian Payroll Association, cpa, Dialogues, human resources management, information technology, Information Technology PolicyPro, IT, ITPP, payroll technology, time
Posted in Employment Standards, HRMS, Human Resources, Payroll | Make a Comment »

Social media make it easy to create controversy, but smart practices can limit the risk

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Technology usually helps us function by making daily tasks easier, safer, more efficient, and so on. But sometimes a technology comes along that doesn’t simply improve the way we do something, it actually creates a new type of behaviour. I think this is the case with online social networking, which allows individuals to broadcast to mass audiences in a way that wasn’t available in the past. The question remains, however, as to whether this activity makes life any easier! Some have certainly found it just causes them trouble.

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Tags: Canadian Football League, CFL, communications, discrimination, marketing, policy, racism, social media, social networking, social networking policy, technology, twitter
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Human Rights, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Slaw: Human rights tribunal defends family values: work-life balance ruling

Friday, August 13th, 2010

While not every childcare need gives rise to an employer obligation to accommodate, the employee argued that her complicated and unpredictable schedule made it impossible to care for her children. Moreover, she knew that…

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Tags: Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, childcare need, duty to accommodate, employer obligation to accommodate, employment law, family status, marital status, policy, policy and procedures, policypro, Slaw, work-life balance
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

Unspoken and unaddressed harassment claims leads to workplace violence

Friday, August 13th, 2010

I recently read in the news a classic case of unaddressed harassment claims that led to the worst form of workplace violence. This case may stem from the US but all the same principles and warnings apply in Canada as well. The case involves the death of nine people (including the suspected gunman) on Tuesday August 3, 2010, in a shooting rampage at a beer distributor in Connecticut.

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Tags: beer distributor in Manchester, Connecticut, disciplinary hearing, Guides, policies and procedures, policy manual, racial discrimination, racial harassment, resignation, shooting rampage at a beer distributor in Manchester, unaddressed harassment claims, workplace harassment, workplace harassment policy, workplace investigation, workplace violence, workplace violence policy
Posted in Health and Safety, Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

Employers must create and preserve documents in case of a lawsuit

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Employers generally win employment law cases when they can provide the courts with a paper trail of evidence in support of their employment related decisions such as termination, disciplinary actions or inability to accommodate the needs of employees, among other things.

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Tags: altering, concealing, deleting or destroying relevant hard-copy or electronic information, disciplinary actions, document recording and retention obligations, document retention policies, documentation, employment law, evidence, human resources management system, inability to accommodate the needs of employees, metadata, preservation and disclosure of electronic and other documents, record keeping, spoliation, termination, wrongful dismissal, wrongful dismissal claim
Posted in Employment Standards, HRMS, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

Workplace fire safety

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

If a fire occurs in the workplace do you and your employees know what to do?

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Tags: employee safety training, employee training, employer responsibilities for fire safety, fire drills in your workplace, fire safety, health and safety training, how to respond to a fire, Office of the Fire Marshal, orientation, training
Posted in Health and Safety, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

Hearings scheduled to decide retirement ages of Air Canada pilots

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Between November 22 and November 25, 2010, the Federal Court of Canada will hold hearings and then decide whether the mandatory retirement age of 60 years should stand for about 3,000 Air Canada pilots.

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Tags: 60 years, age, age of retirement, Air Canada, canadian charter of rights and freedoms, Canadian Human Rights Act, discrimination, equality, Federal Court of Canada, mandatory retirement, mandatory retirement policy, Pilot's Association, pilots, retirement age
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

Enforceable dismissal clauses

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

One crucial piece of advice that I offer to employers is to have every single employee sign an employment agreement that, if nothing else, sets out what will happen in the event of dismissal without cause. The reason for this suggestion is simple: without a contractual dismissal provision, an employer’s obligations in the event of dismissal without cause are unpredictable and often extensive.

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Tags: clear and unambiguous, common law, consideration, Dismissal, employment agreement, employment contract, employment standards, inducement, reasonable notice, termination, termination without cause
Posted in Employment Standards, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

Employers: the Linksters are coming

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

I recently read a very interesting article in the Edmonton Journal that indicated that working with “linksters”, also referred to as the tech-savvy generation, calls for understanding from employers.

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Tags: communication skills, Edmonton Journal, generational differences, Linksters, skills learning, social skills, tech-savvy generation, technologically savvy, training, workforce
Posted in Human Resources, Recruiting and Hiring | 2 Comments »

Breastfeeding at work

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Across Canada, human rights legislation protects people from discrimination and harassment based on sex/gender; this protection includes pregnancy and breastfeeding. It is illegal to discriminate because a woman is pregnant. It is also illegal to discriminate because a woman was pregnant, had a baby or might become pregnant.

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Tags: Breastfeeding, discrimination, duty to accommodate, Employer duty to accommodate, Fair Labor Standards Act, gender, harassment, human rights commission, human rights legislation, human rights tribunal, pregnancy, sex, undue hardship
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

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