First Reference Talks

Federal budget 2012 – don’t forget the Old Age Security changes!

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

Effective, April 1, 2023, with full implementation by January 2029, the eligibility age for Old Age Security (OAS) is increasing to age 67 from 65 to reflect the reality that Canadians are living longer and healthier lives, and intending to keep working and delay retirement. In line with the increase in age of OAS/GIS eligibility, the ages at which the allowance and the allowance for the survivor are provided will also gradually increase from 60–64 today to 62–66, starting in April 2023.

Tags: budget, Early retirement, eligibility age, federal budget, general income supplement, GIS, OAS, old age security, pension, retirement, retirement age
Posted in Benefits, Employee Relations, Human Resources, Payroll | Make a Comment »

No proportionality, no cause for termination

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench recently confirmed that a termination for cause was inappropriate, given that it was not proportional to the employee’s conduct. As a result, the employer had to pay 12 months’ severance as set out in the employment agreement regarding a termination without cause.

Tags: altercation, anger management, angry employee, conduct and behaviour, Disciplinary measures, discipline, employee conduct, employment contract, employment law, manitoba, progressive discipline policy, proportionality, reasonable discipline, Sanctions, severance, severity of an employee’s misconduct, suspension, terminate, termination for cause, termination notice, workplace investigation, wrongful dismissal
Posted in Employee Relations, Employment Standards, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

HR’s role in Apple’s success

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

What is it about the Apple Store that’s just so great? Is it the super chic product line? The fact that you can tinker with just about anything in there? The super modern layout and design? All of those things are neat, sure, but I’d argue there’s something more—something you may not have paid as much attention to…

Tags: Apple, Apple Store, business partners, company culture, customer service, employee retention, employee roles, engagement, leadership, meaningful work, opportunity, organizational development, strategic alignment, strategic HR
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development | Make a Comment »

Is the flu a disability?

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

Is the flu, etc., covered by human rights law and other Canadian legislation like Ontario’s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act?

Tags: absenteeim, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, AODA, attendance, colds, colds and flu in the workplace, disabilities, Disability, employment law, flu, is the flu a disability, minor illness, Ontario Human Rights Code, person with disabilities, seasonal sickness, sickness
Posted in Accessibility Standards, Employee Relations, Human Resources, Human Rights, Standard for Employment | 2 Comments »

Internships and the law

Monday, March 26th, 2012

You might have heard or read something in the past few months about internships—their status with respect to employment standards and whether it’s even legal to employ such workers without paying them. It’s no small issue. Many organizations rely on unpaid interns to do work for which they can’t afford to hire an employee proper…

Tags: employment law, employment relationship, intern or employee?, interns, internships, job experience, Ontario Ministry of Labour, trainee, unpaid interns, Work experience
Posted in Employee Relations, Employment Standards, Human Resources, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development | 3 Comments »

Making your employee handbook enforceable

Monday, March 26th, 2012

A regular issue for employers is whether the provisions in their employee handbook are enforceable in the same manner as an employment contract. Many employers are surprised to find that they are not…

Tags: consideration, employee handbook, employment contracts, employment law, enforceable, invalid contract, Job abandonment, layoff, McLean vs. The Raywal Limited Partnership, policy manual, promotion, sufficiency on consideration, termination, terminations, wrongfully dismissed
Posted in Employee Relations, Employment Standards, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

More news on Air Canada: pilots challenge the back-to-work legislation

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

The Air Canada pre-emptive back-to-work legislation saga continues. Now the pilots have challenged the pre-emptive back-to-work legislation in court arguing that it prevents strikes or lockouts, forces the pilots to keep flying, and coerces the pilots to accept a contract imposed by arbitration in a process that is completely skewed given it was designed to favour the airline’s position…

Tags: Air Canada, back-to-work legislation, Canadian Aviation Regulations, Charter, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Collective Bargaining, employment law, final selection arbitration, Industrial Relations, Labour Law, lockouts, not fit to fly, pilots, prevents collective bargaining, prevents freedom to associate, prevents lockouts, prevents strikes, stress, strikes
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Human Rights, Union Relations | 2 Comments »

Court of Appeal confirms entitlement to disability benefits

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

Most employers are familiar with the potential legal exposure to damages that arises from dismissing an employee without cause. The damages are normally quantified by the value of compensation the dismissed employee would have received during the agreed-upon or court-ordered period of reasonable notice. However, most employers would not contemplate the possibility of having to pay the dismissed employee the value of disability benefits he or she would have received under a disability insurance policy until age 65…

Tags: Brito et al. v. Canac Kitchens, cancer of the larynx, Disability benefits, Echlin, employment standards act, long-serving, Long-term disability, LTD, mitigation, severance, short-term disability, statutory minimum, termination, termination notice, termination pay, termination without cause, totally disabled, wrongful dismissal
Posted in Benefits, Employee Relations, Employment Standards, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Payroll | Make a Comment »

The social interview: a case study

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

Recruiters and employers use social media to screen job applicants on a daily basis. Employers are Googling, Facebooking and checking tweets, walls, status updates and photos of prospective employees, including Linkedln accounts, as a first step in recruiting.

From this new employment practice the concept of the social interview was born.

Tags: background checks, Employment background checks, employment law, facebook, HR Apps, job candidate, Labour Law, References, selection process, Social interview, social media, social networking
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Privacy and Security, Recruiting and Hiring | 3 Comments »

Video surveillance and the workplace – Part 1

Friday, March 16th, 2012

A number of recent, unrelated legal developments have caught my attention in relation to video surveillance, privacy and the Canadian workplace. This blog post is the first of a two-part series that will identify some of these recent developments and consider their broader implications.

Tags: criminal prosecutions, employment law, grievance, Labour Law, mobile video surveillance, operational risks, Personal Information and Protection of Electronic Data Act, privacy and the Canadian workplace, privacy controls, privacy proportional to the benefit gained, security, video camera as a security, video surveillance
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Privacy and Security, Union Relations | 4 Comments »

BYOD trend poses immense challenges for organizations

Wednesday, March 7th, 2012

No, employees aren’t bringing their own alcoholic drinks to work, but they are bringing in their own mobile devices and expecting to use them with their employers’ networks. What does that mean? Well, chances are several (if not many) of a given organization’s employees have personal smartphones or tablet computers, and they probably want to use them to perform work tasks.

Tags: Blackberry, BYOD, chief mobility officer, Crackberry, information technology, iPad, iPhone, IT, mobile devices, mobility, Network Security, smartphones, tablet computer
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

What’s reasonable when assessing an employee’s fitness to return to work?

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

When an employee refused to disclose any medical details prior to returning to work following a leave of absence due to mental disability, the employer was left without the necessary knowledge to determine her fitness to return to her pre-disability leave position and if accommodation was required…

Tags: accommodation, collective agreement, confidential information, cooperate during accommodation, Disability, Disclosure of medical information, duty to accommodate, employment law, fitness to return to work, functional limitations, human rights code, independent medical review, invasion of privacy, Jones v. Tsige, mental disability, Ontario Labour Arbitration Board, undue hardship
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Human Rights, Privacy and Security, Union Relations | Make a Comment »

Weight a factor in employment decisions

Monday, March 5th, 2012

In a recent HRinfodesk poll, we asked our readers if a person’s weight had ever influenced their decision on whether to hire, promote or reward the person. The reason I was so interested in the topic is that a Quebec lawyer recently sued her former law firm because she believes the firm discriminated against her in employment because she was overweight.

Tags: BFOR, bona fide occupational requirement, discrimination, employment, employment contract, employment law, employment related decisions, fixed-term contract, height and weight requirement, hiring, overweight, Physical appearance, Physical disability, promoting or rewarding employees, psychological harassment, Quebec Human Rights Commission
Posted in Compensation, Employee Relations, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Recruiting and Hiring | Make a Comment »

Employers still liable for bonuses during notice period

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

The recent decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court in Szczypiorkowski v. Coast Capital Savings Credit Union is not particularly groundbreaking, but it does affirm a number of important points for employers…

Tags: annual bonus, Bardal, Bonus entitlement on termination, breach of policy, employment law, Ferguson v. Kodak Canada Inc., inappropriate email, just cause, mitigation, notice period, reasonable notice, reference letter, sexual harassment, Szczypiorkowski v. Coast Capital Savings Credit Union, termination, withdrawing just cause claim, wrongful dismissal
Posted in Benefits, Compensation, Employee Relations, Employment Standards, Human Resources, Payroll | 2 Comments »