First Reference Talks

Posts Tagged ‘policy’

Social media in the workplace: Oh what to do!? (part 2)

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Some companies have applied traditional methods to the problem of social media at work: the soft approach attempts to monitor and regulate via policies; and the hard approach simply slams the door on employee access and use with a heavy hand. Neither of these works particularly well. The former will almost certainly lead to employee confusion and efforts—either intentional or not—to circumvent the policy, and the latter will likely result in discontented employees finding other ways to work around the blockade. In addition, both are difficult, if not impossible, to enforce fully; and attempts to bypass or evade controls could even lead to damage of physical or virtual IT resources.

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Tags: communications, content filtering, employee conduct, facebook, IM, instant messaging, policy, social media, social networking, twitter, web 2.0
Posted in Human Resources, Privacy and Security | 3 Comments »

Romance (sex) in the workplace – the Letterman case

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Last week, television talk show host David Letterman acknowledged on his program that he had sexual relationships with several female employees and that someone tried to extort money from him under the threat of making the relationships public. Letterman referred the matter to the police and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and after an investigation, another employee of the Letterman’s broadcasting network, CBS, was arrested on attempted grand larceny. I don’t know about you but this is a great example of how romance (sex) in the workplace can go terribly wrong!

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Tags: canadian employment law, employment law, employment standards, HR issues, Human Resources, human rights, policies and procedures, policy, romance in the workplace, sexual discrimination, sexual harassment
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights | 4 Comments »

Introducing guest blogger Stuart Rudner

Monday, October 5th, 2009

It’s a pleasure to welcome Stuart Rudner as a guest blogger. He will be blogging about human resources, employment and labour law issues.

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Tags: canadian employment law, employment law, employment standards, health and safety, HR issues, Human Resources, human rights, Labour Law, Miller Thomson LLP, occupational health and safety, ontario, ontario employment standards act, policies and procedures, policy, vicarious liability, workers compensation
Posted in Announcements | Make a Comment »

Social media in the workplace: Oh what to do!?

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

If you’re reading this blog post, I’ll bet that you’re at work, on company time. Should you feel bad about that? I’d like to believe that what you’re reading has value, and will add to your understanding of today’s workplace and HR practices, and maybe that’s justification enough. But I wouldn’t be surprised if, besides reading blogs, you also looked at your Facebook account and maybe even sent a few tweets while at work. What’s your justification for that?

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Tags: facebook, policies and procedures, policy, social media, twitter, web 2.0
Posted in Human Resources, Privacy and Security | 2 Comments »

Ban on hand-held devices in force October 26

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Ontario’s ban on hand-held devices while driving will take effect on October 26, 2009. It will be illegal for drivers to talk, text, type, dial or email using hand-held cell phones and other hand-held communications and entertainment devices. There will be a three month transition period for enforcement where the focus will be on educating drivers; police will start issuing tickets on February 1, 2010.

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Tags: ban on cellphone use, canadian employment law, cellphone use, employment law, health and safety, Highway traffic act, HR issues, Human Resources, occupational health and safety, ontario, policy, vicarious liability, workers compensation
Posted in Employment Standards, Human Resources | 1 Comment »

After hours access to work may lead to overtime claims

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

We’ve been hearing lately that in the United States employers are being held liable to employees for overtime compensation for using PDAs/BlackBerrys after hours for work and for checking work-related emails. We’ve been made aware of four such class action suits by employees that allege, among other claims, that the company provides them with BlackBerrys or other smart devices, and that they are required to review and respond to work-related emails and text messages at all hours of the day, amounting to 10 to 15 overtime hours per week.

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Tags: Blackberrys, canadian employment law, cellphone use, class action suit, employment law, employment standards, hours of work, HR issues, Human Resources, Labour Law, overtime, PDAs, policies and procedures, policy, portable devices
Posted in Employment Standards, Human Resources | 6 Comments »

Swine flu and the workplace

Monday, September 7th, 2009

With a new wave of swine flu (H1N1) predicted to hit by mid-October 2009, the Public Health Agency of Canada in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments have launched a new website FightFlu.ca at www.fightflu.ca. It is a one-stop access to online information and resources about H1N1 flu virus. In addition, the agency has awarded a contract worth $926,600 under the Pandemic Preparedness Response Fund to the International Centre for Infectious Diseases (ICID) to develop tools and strategies that small and medium sized businesses can use to take action to ensure they recognize and deal with the challenges brought on by the virus, and develop plans to deal with increased employee absenteeism and disruptions in their operations.

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Tags: Absenteeism, Business continuity, emergency preparedness, H1N1, health and safety, HR issues, human rights, illness at work, Leaves of absence, occupational health and safety, pandemic, pandemic planning, pandemic policies, policy, sick leave, swine flu, swine flu at work, workers compensation, workplace preparedness
Posted in Health and Safety, Human Resources | 8 Comments »

Next >>

First Reference Talks

Posts Tagged ‘policy’

Social media in the workplace: Oh what to do!? (part 2)

Romance (sex) in the workplace – the Letterman case

Introducing guest blogger Stuart Rudner

Social media in the workplace: Oh what to do!?

Ban on hand-held devices in force October 26

After hours access to work may lead to overtime claims

Swine flu and the workplace

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