July, 2011
July 29, 2011 Yosie Saint-Cyr Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources
The first Monday of August is a general holiday for employees in many parts of Canada. It is a public (statutory) holiday in some provinces and territories, but in others it has another legal status. It is often called the “August Holiday”, “Civic Holiday”, “Simcoe Day” (around Ontario), “Provincial Day”, “Heritage Day”, “Natal Day”, or other local names.
civic holiday, Day off with pay, discretionary day off, First Monday in August, floater day, general holiday, Public Holiday, Simcoe Day, Statutory Holiday
July 29, 2011 Alan McEwen Payroll, Pensions and Benefits
Recently, one of our subscribers was wondering how to deal with payroll deductions relating to long-term disability (LTD) premiums. They wanted to know if the amount they deduct from the employee’s paycheque must include the Ontario sales tax on the LTD premium?
Deductions at source, employer portion of the LTD premium, insurance company, Long-term disability, LTD coverage, LTD premiums, Ontario Retail Sales Tax, Payroll deductions
July 28, 2011 Yosie Saint-Cyr Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources
On July 15, 2011, several workers showed up to work as usual at IQT Solutions, only to be told that their employer had unexpectedly shut down its Canadian operations: three call centres, one in Ontario and two in Quebec. About 1,200 IQT employees were suddenly unemployed with no final paycheque, vacation pay or notice of termination.
bankruptcy, call centre, corporate governance, Corporate Values, employment law, employment standards act, Insolvency, IQT Solutions, labour standards act, Ministry of Labour, Notice of termination, ontario, Quebec, social media, termination, terminations, unpaid wages, vacation pay
July 28, 2011 Andrew Taillon Human Resources, Human Rights
On July 7, 2011 the New Brunswick Court of Appeal handed down a decision regarding an employer’s alcohol testing policy. In Irving Pulp and Paper Limited v. Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada Local 30, 2011 NBCA 58, the Court found that the random alcohol testing policy in the case was reasonable.
alcohol testing, breathalyser, Court of Appeal, dangerous workplace, employee handbook, employer’s alcohol testing policy, employer’s work environment, employment law, incidents in the workplace, Mining operations, New Brunswick, policy manual, random alcohol testing, random testing, safety sensitive positions, workplace
July 27, 2011 Suzanne Cohen Share Accessibility Standards, Standard for Customer Service
Generally, disruptions to all of your services, such as during a power outage or during a labour dispute, do not require this special notice. However, if the disruption has a significant impact on people with disabilities, you should provide notice of the disruption of service. In Ontario, under the Accessibility Standards for Customer Service, as of January 1, 2012, organizations are required to publicly notify customers of temporary disruptions of services or facilities or if they are expected to be temporarily unavailable in the near future, including the steps to take to access alternative methods.
accessibility, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, Accessibility law, Accessibility standards, Accessibility Standards for Customer Service, AODA, assistive devices, Disability, disruption of services, employment law, people with disabilities, temporary disruptions of services, unplanned service disruptions
July 26, 2011 Andrew Lawson Employee Relations, Health and Safety, Human Resources
Without any question whatsoever it is smart for organizations and those who manage them to address issues of workplace bullying. It is not only smart but, since about this time last year, it is the law!
bullying, cyber-libel, employment law, harassment, incidents of harassment in the workplace, occupational health and safety act, workplace bullying, workplace harassment
July 22, 2011 Christina Catenacci Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources
In a recent Globe and Mail video, author Juliet Schor discusses how reducing work hours might be the answer to some of the problems facing Canada’s workforce. Schor mentions that having employees work shorter hours decreases unemployment rates, lowers greenhouse emissions, and improves quality of life.
career advancement, conflicts between jobs, decreased unemployment rates, employee burnout, financial collapse, Germany, higher quality of life, hours of work, HR, job sharing, lower carbon emissions, minimum wage earners, Netherlands, reduced hours of work, second jobs, time affluent, work-life balance, workforce, working more hours, workplace
July 21, 2011 Henry J. Chang Corporate Immigration, Human Resources
On July 4, 2011, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC”) issued Operational Bulletin 316 (the “Bulletin”). The Bulletin contains additional instructions regarding the assessment criteria that should be considered when adjudicating specialized knowledge intracompany transferee work permit applications.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada, employment law, Foreign workers, intracompany transferee, National Occupational Classification, NOC, Operational Bulletin 316, Required salary or wage, specialized knowledge, specialized knowledge intracompany transferees, temporary foreign worker, work permit
July 19, 2011 John Proctor Health and Safety, Human Resources
When an organization gives one of their human resources a task, how often is a risk assessment done? The answer is: it depends. When firefighters are asked to enter a burning building, the person in charge first assesses the risk to his people. When the engineers at the Japanese nuclear plant had to re-enter the facility to prevent a meltdown, a risk assessment was also completed before that. However, when most organizations fly their sales guy to South Africa, or get the young clerk at the gas station to close up the shop at night, rarely do they consider all the risks.
audit, Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, car accident, CCOHS, disease, employment law, environmental health concerns, Harmonized TRA Methodology, HR, ISO 31000, IT security, job safety, Job Safety Analysis Made Simple, management, natural disasters, political risks, risk assessments, risk tolerance, terrorism, travel risk management, violence in the workplace, workplace, workplace violence
July 15, 2011 Christina Catenacci Employee Relations, Human Resources, Privacy and Security
Consider this: you have encouraged your employee to use online social media during work time to build professional contacts to grow your business. The employee goes ahead and invests time during the workday visiting sites like Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook. This strategy proves to be positive; the contacts have been part of the business growth you have experienced. Then, your employee wants to leave the company and move on to another job. Can you, as the employer, ask for the contact information the employee accumulated during his or her employment?
business opportunities, Emails, employment contract, employment law, employment relationship, facebook, in the course of employment, LinkedIn, networking, non-disclosure, non-solicitation, personal versus work, professional contacts, restrictive covenants, social media, social media portability, social media sites, social networking, twitter, work-related
July 14, 2011 Ian J Cook HR Analytics, HRMS, Human Resources, Union Relations
To achieve the best of both worlds it is important to align your data with common standards that are most likely to provide the opportunity for like with like comparison and like with unlike comparison. This creates the capability to compare in a way that confirms your performance or compare in a way that pushes your performance. As with all data and analytic practices the right thing to do is the one which moves the performance needle for your organization. The more HR can do this AND demonstrate this the better.
absence, absenteeism rate, benchmarking, Business, Data, data is used to bring value to the HR function, days lost, detailed analysis of data, HR metrics, HR Metrics Service, HR practices, performance, Public and Private Sectors, staff productivity
July 13, 2011 Yosie Saint-Cyr Employee Relations, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Human Rights
Aggression sometimes occurs in the workplace. That is a fact! And when conflicts are left unresolved, employers have employees resigning or taking tremendous amounts of sick leave to deal with these issues, or the aggression crosses the line into assault or battery, or you receive a human rights or occupational health and safety complaint.
aggression, bullying, discrimination, employment law, gender, harassment, harassment free workplace, hostile work environment, Human rights complaint, occupational health and safety complaint, policy and procedures, racial, religious or sexually charged discrimination, training, workplace
July 12, 2011 Yosie Saint-Cyr Announcements, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Wages and Compensation
It’s a pleasure to welcome Alan R. McEwen as a regular guest blogger. Alan will be blogging on the topics of payroll, compensation and benefits.
Alan R. McEwen, Blogger, Blogging, Canadian Payroll, Canadian Payroll Association, EI Commission, employment law, First Reference Talks, payroll audits, Source deductions
July 11, 2011 Yosie Saint-Cyr Health and Safety, Human Resources
Last March, we discussed the WSIB’s new return-to-work approach that consist of the interim changes to the work reintegration policies under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act , and the Work Reintegration NEER policy. Following extensive stakeholder consultation, the final seven policies on Work Reintegration and NEER become effective July 15, 2011.
employment law, NEER, NEER policy, Re-employment obligations, Return to work, return-to-work approach, Work Reintegration, work reintegration policies, Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, wsib
Good day, I have just recently started a new job in the Position of Regional Loss Prevention Manager. I am a former Military Police Officer... – May 16, 7:14 AM
Sarnia lawyer targeted by opposing party in family estate settlement: http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/archives/sunnews/canada/2013/05/20130510-133258.html – May 10, 2:12 PM
