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Posts Tagged ‘employment law’

Human Rights Tribunal barred from hearing application: no forum-shopping allowed

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal recently examined an application before it and an earlier statement of claim made in court by the same person, and concluded that the claims were virtually identical. They were based on the same facts, made the same allegations and sought similar remedies…

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Tags: barred from hearing application, Civil court, Disability, discrimination, duplication of claims, employment law, forum-shopping, human rights code, human rights tribunal, ontario, Ontario Human Rights Code, reprisal, Return to work, sex, short-term disability leave, statement of claim, termination, wrongful dismissal
Posted in Employment Standards, Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

Tax and employment insurance issues when settling dismissal claims

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Employment lawyers are generally quite adept at negotiating and resolving disputes arising out of the termination of an individual’s employment. We have all seen the statistics that only a miniscule number of dismissals result in a full trial and we know that in almost every case, it is better for the parties to reach a resolution than to proceed with litigation. That said, many traps exist in the settlement of a wrongful dismissal claim.

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Tags: Canada Revenue Agency, CRA, Dismissal, EI benefits, Employment Insurance Act, employment insurance benefits, employment law, Income Tax Act, lump sum severance, negotiating and resolving disputes arising out of the termination, retirement, retiring allowance, RPP, RRSP, salary continuance, T4, T4A, tax withholding, termination, termination disputes, termination settlement, wrongful dismissal
Posted in Benefits, Compensation, Employment Standards, Finance and Accounting, Human Resources, Internal Controls, Payroll, Source Deductions and Reporting | Make a Comment »

National Occupational Classification (NOC) 2011 now available

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

The National Occupational Classification (NOC) 2011 is the current departmental standard and was approved on November 21, 2011. The NOC was jointly released for free by Statistics Canada and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) today and includes…

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Tags: Compensation package, different skill levels to reflect changes in job requirements, employment law, HRSDC, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, Job classifications, job description, job titles, National Occupational Classification, NOC, Occupations, Skill levels, Skill types, Statistics Canada, Work performed
Posted in Compensation, Employee Relations, HR Analytics, HRMS, Human Resources, Payroll, Recruiting and Hiring | Make a Comment »

Adoptive mothers not allowed maternity leave

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Under employment standards legislation, birth mothers receive a total of 52 weeks of leave when they combine maternity (17 weeks) and parental leave (35 weeks), and are entitled to receive a total of 50 weeks of EI benefits (15 weeks maternity, 35 weeks parental) for that period. However, the same benefits are not available to adoptive mothers, who only receive 37 weeks of parental leave and 35 weeks of EI benefits. Now a new movement to challenge the law to provide equal EI benefits to adoptive parents is gaining momentum…

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Tags: Adoptive mothers, Adoptive parents, biological mothers, birth mothers, canadian charter of rights and freedoms, discrimination, EI benefits, Employment Insurance, Employment Insurance Act, employment law, Employment Standards legislation, federal court of appeal, maternity leave, maternity leave benefits, parental leave, parental leave benefits, physiological and psychological experience, pregnancy and childbirth, pregnancy leave, Section 15(1) of the Charter, Supreme Court of Canada, Tomasson v. Canada (Attorney General)
Posted in Benefits, Employment Standards, Human Resources, Payroll | Make a Comment »

Failure to work notice period did not take away right to sue for damages

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Here’s an interesting case from the British Columbia Court of Appeal. When an employer left a termination letter on a bus driver’s seat for him to find, The Court found there was inadequate notice of termination. The fact that the bus driver left work immediately instead of working the notice period did not negate his right to sue for damages in lieu of notice.

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Tags: BC, breach of contract, British Columbia, common law, Damanges, employment law, inadequate notice of termination, reasonable notice, reasonable termination notice, repudiation of the contract, termination, termination letter, working notice, wrongful dismissal
Posted in Employment Standards, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

Slaw: Draft of National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace Released

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Last year I told you about the plan to release a voluntary national standard for mentally healthy workplaces. The standard aims to help Canadian employers support the psychological health and safety of their employees by providing them with the necessary guidelines and tools to achieve measurable improvements in psychological health and safety in the workplace.

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Tags: CSA Standards, employment law, mental health, National Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace
Posted in Employee Relations, Health and Safety, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

The debate over moral damages continues

Friday, January 20th, 2012

Since Honda v. Keays, employment law and human resources practitioners have been watching how the law regarding bad faith dismissals has developed, in particular, the assessment of moral damages. A recently published decision has added some clarity to the moral damages question. The case, Canada (Attorney General) v. Tipple (2011) dealt with the well known case of Douglas Tipple.

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Tags: bad faith, bad faith dismissals, bad faith termination, Canada (Attorney General) v. Tipple (2011), Douglas Tipple, employment law, grievance, Honda damages, Honda v. Keays, mental health effects, misleading and unduly insensitive, moral damages, psychological injury, reprisal, termination, workplace investigations
Posted in Employee Relations, Employment Standards, Human Resources | 2 Comments »

USCIS proposes regulatory change to permit stateside processing of unlawful presence waivers

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

On January 6, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it was proposing a regulatory change that would allow spouses and children of U.S. citizens who are in the United States but need an immigrant waiver of unlawful presence bar to apply for the waiver within the United States.

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Tags: children of U.S. citizens, Department of Homeland Security, employment law, Foreign workers, immigrant visa, immigrant waiver, Immigration and Nationality Act, United States, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, unlawful presence bar
Posted in Corporate Immigration, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

Citizenship and Immigration Canada announces excessive demand cost threshold for 2012

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

On December 30, 2011, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC”) issued Operational Bulletin 373 (“OB 373”). OB 373 provides additional information relating to the Excessive Demand Cost Threshold (the “Demand Threshold”) for 2012, which became effective on December 1, 2011.

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Tags: barred from Canada based on health grounds, Canadian Institute for Health Information, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, employment law, Excessive Demand Cost Threshold, expected medical costs of the foreign national, foreign national, Foreign workers, health or social services, Operational Bulletin 373, permanent residence in Canada, temporary residents
Posted in Corporate Immigration, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

Mandatory retirement ends for federally regulated employers

Monday, January 16th, 2012

The federal government gave royal assent to Bill C-13, Keeping Canada’s Economy and Jobs Growing Act on December 15, 2011. Several of the measures enacted have an impact on employment law for federally regulated workplaces. One of the measures amends the Canadian Human Rights Act to eliminate the mandatory retirement age for federally regulated employees.

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Tags: age, age discrimination, age-based job requirement or qualification, anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies, BFOR, Bill C-13 Keeping Canada’s Economy and Jobs Growing Act, bona fide occupational requirement, Canadian Human Rights Act, duty to accommodate, employment law, federally regulated employers, mandatory retirement, The normal age for retirement in Canada is 65, The Supreme Court of Canada, workplace policies
Posted in Employee Relations, Employment Standards, Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

No age discrimination present – job applicant was simply outperformed in interviews

Friday, January 13th, 2012

I read a case recently that clearly illustrates why employers should ensure that interview questions are related to the actual job responsibilities required for a job, and to remember to make and keep for a reasonable period of time interview notes that include the reasons for hiring (and not hiring) candidates.

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Tags: age discrimination, conducting interviews, documentation, employment law, genuine belief, interview, job applicant, job applicants, job responsibilities, justifiable reasons, Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, outperformed, permanent contract posision, reference, selection process, teacher, testimony, tie questions to job, witness
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights, Recruiting and Hiring | Make a Comment »

Slaw: Internet child pornography reporting regulations

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

On December 6, 2011, the Internet Child Pornography Reporting Regulations were registered in the Canada Gazette and came into force. The goal of the regulations is to establish a framework necessary to implement the mechanics for the designated organizations receiving reports and service providers who report to discharge their duties under An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service.

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Tags: Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service, Canadian Centre for Child Protection, Criminal law, employment law, Internet Child Pornography Reporting Regulations, Internet Service Providers, online sexual exploitation, reporting obligations, secure online system
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Internal Controls, IT, Privacy and Security | Make a Comment »

Employees that wish to withdraw resignations: what to do?

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

Employers should never accept resignations from employees that are upset. It simply casts a “wider net of possible financial exposure” if things turn nasty. In other words, judges or juries probably won’t sympathize with the issue of resignation acceptance if the employee is genuinely and legitimately upset (not because someone misplaced their red stapler).

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Tags: employment law, Kieran v. Ingram Micro, mitigation, notice of resignation, notice period, offer to resign, quit or be fired, reasonable notice, resignation, termination, valid resignation, voluntary acceptance, withdraw resignation, wrongful dismissal, wrongful resignation
Posted in Employee Relations, Employment Standards, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

The offices of the worker and employer advisers: potential changes on the way

Friday, January 6th, 2012

The Ontario Ministry of Labour has recently proposed a new regulation under the Occupational Health and Safety Act that would prescribe certain functions of the Office of the Worker Adviser and the Office of the Employer Adviser in regard to worker complaints of reprisals by employers under section 50 of the Act. What does it really mean?

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Tags: Bill 160, consultations, employment law, occupational health and safety act, Office of the Employer Adviser, Office of the Employer Advisor, Office of the Worker Advisor, ontario, Ontario Ministry of Labour, public consultation, regulation, reprisal, reprisals, Section 50 of OHSA, wsib
Posted in Health and Safety, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

Misclassification of workers: contractors or consultants?

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

I have often written and spoken about misclassification of workers, specifically that many organizations agree to call workers “contractors” or “consultants” even though they are, in reality, employees. The bottom line is that our courts and government agencies, including the Canada Revenue Agency, will not be swayed by the terms used in a document or the manner in which parties describe their relationship. They will look at the reality of the situation, and…

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Tags: Canada Revenue Agency, consultants, contractor, contractors, employee or self-employed, employment contracts, employment law, employment relationship, independent contractors, Misclassification of workers
Posted in Employee Relations, Employment Standards, Human Resources, Recruiting and Hiring | 2 Comments »