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Posts Tagged ‘workplace’

Excessive overtime doubles depression risk

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

A January 25, 2012, British research study indicates that people who work 11 or more hours a day have double the odds of becoming depressed compared with those who don’t work overtime. But why is this important for us as employers to know?

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Tags: depression, employment law, Excessive overtime doubles depression risk, lost work days, mental disorders, mental health issues, Mental illness, overtime, short- and long- term disability, substantial work impairment, work-related stress, working excessive hours, workplace, workplace stress
Posted in Accessibility Standards, Employee Relations, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Human Rights, Standard for Employment | 1 Comment »

Safety and security for business travellers: a legal and moral imperative for Canadian employers, part 2

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

In some cases, business leaders fail to recognize that employee travel falls within the physical scope of workplace activities. In other cases, decision-makers believe that only those travelling to international high-risk destinations require any type of security protection. In most organizations, there is also a gap in knowledge when it comes to travel security, contributing to a lack of risk awareness and fragmented ownership of the function within the organization.

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Tags: all reasonable steps, Blue Mountain Resorts Limited v. Ontario, business travel, business travel destinations as workplaces, common law, Duty of care, employee group benefits, employee travel, failure to comply, high-risk locale, hot spots, international travel, non-compliance, occupational health and safety, OH&S, R v Port Colborne, risk assessment, risk management myth, safety risk, security risk, situational awareness, tort liability, tracking travellers, travel and extended health care insurance, travel risk management, travel-related risk, TRM, what is a workplace, workplace, workplace violence
Posted in Employee Relations, Health and Safety, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

Occupational health and safety missteps often cost workers their lives

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Nova Scotia is a wondrous place full of amazing–and dangerous–places. I visited “Canada’s Ocean Playgound” this summer and came home with a renewed appreciation for labour history and the reality that occupational health and safety missteps often cost workers their lives.

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Tags: Accidents, Due diligence, employment law, health and safety standards, Miners, Mining, Mining operations, Nova Scotia, occupational health and safety, occupational health and safety act, occupational health and safety missteps often cost workers their lives, policies and procedures, policy, workplace
Posted in Health and Safety, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

How corporate events build employee engagement

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

First Reference just had its annual picnic and a good time was had by all. There was lots of food, chats and amusing repartee, and a mean game of croquet! This event, among others,which in practical terms might be characterized as activities to build the culture of the organization or team-building activities, have helped create a community at our workplace and not just a workforce.

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Tags: communication activities, Corporate culture, corporate events, culture of the organization, employee engagement, HR policies, Leadership development, reward programs, team building activities, workforce, workplace
Posted in Employee Relations, Human Resources, Internal Controls | Make a Comment »

After the Chilean mine disaster – How HR got it wrong

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

The first anniversary of the Chilean mine disaster is an opportune time to take a closer look at the key aspects of managing human resources, and how we can avoid some of the mistakes that were made during the Chile mine incident.

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Tags: Chile mine incident, disaster, Employer liability, hostage victims, liability, managing human resources, workplace
Posted in Health and Safety, Human Resources, Internal Controls | Make a Comment »

New Brunswick court of appeal weighs in on alcohol testing

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

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.

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Tags: 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
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

Reduced hours of work and job sharing – an idea suited for North America?

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

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.

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Tags: 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
Posted in Employee Relations, Employment Standards, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

The importance of conducting risk assessments for human resources

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

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.

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Tags: 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
Posted in Health and Safety, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

When aggression and the workplace collide

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

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.

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Tags: 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
Posted in Employee Relations, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

Last chance to register for the 12th Annual Employment Law Conference

Friday, June 10th, 2011

Last chance to register for the 12th Annual, Ontario Employment Law Conference, on June 15, 2011 at the Mississauga Convention Centre.

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Tags: 12th Annual Employment Law Conference, Conference, employment law, First reference, Mississauga Convention Centre, Stringer Brisbin Humphrey, workplace
Posted in Conferences, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

Independent contractors are regularly employed for purposes of OHSA

Friday, January 21st, 2011

The Ontario Court of Appeal just rendered an interesting decision regarding whether independent contractors are to be counted when determining the need to establish and maintain a joint health and safety committee pursuant to subsection 9(2)(a)of Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.

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Tags: Court of Appeal, employment law, independent contractors, JHSC, joint health and safety committee, occupational health and safety act, OHSA, ontario, Ontario Ministry of Labour, regularly employed, training, truck drivers, workplace
Posted in Health and Safety, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

Slaw: The boundaries’ of the N-word in employment

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Can an employer fire a white employee for using the n-word if it lets black employees say it?

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Tags: condoning social norm, discipline, discriminated against because of race, discrimination, double standard, employment law, hostile work environment, mixed-motive analysis, racial discrimination, racially offensive, racism, retaliation, terminations, victim of racial discrimination, workplace
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

The underrepresentation of women in the workplace

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

I just read an interesting report about women in the workplace. Essentially, the report suggests that women remain underrepresented relative to their male counterparts, even though they form a highly educated and skilled labour pool in the market. Given the skills shortage that is expected to occur in the near future due to mass retirements of senior baby boomer workers, this is an unsettling finding. But why is this happening?

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Tags: childbearing, education, financial penalty, gender equality, gender wage gap, highly educated and skilled labour pool in the market, labour force intermittency, maternity leave, motherhood, pay equity, pregnancy, report, skills shortage, underrepresentation, unexplained gap, wage gap, wage penalties, women, women in the workplace, workplace
Posted in Human Resources, Recruiting and Hiring | 5 Comments »

Bedbug infestations a human resources woe!

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

A colleague of mine thought bedbug infestation invading the workplace would be a good blogging topic because of the frisson he got just thinking of it.

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Tags: bed bug infestation in the workplace, bed bugs, bed bugs in the workplace, Bedbug, CUPE, good housekeeping, National Pest Management Association, occupational health and safety, office environment, pest control experts, workplace
Posted in Health and Safety, Human Resources | Make a Comment »

Racism in the news; racism in the workplace

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Anyone who thinks that the days of individual and systemic racism in Canada are behind us should think again. It might not be nice to think about, but across the country, Canadians and visitors to Canada face racism every day.

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Tags: Cheryl Khan, discrimination, diversity, employment, employment discrimination, harassment, human rights, policies, racism, sensitivity training, workplace, workplace harassment, workplace policies
Posted in Human Resources, Human Rights | Make a Comment »

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      I agree with the court decision. Granting a full 52 weeks leave for an adoptive...

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      Thanks Chris. I would suggest that the confusion arises from the way damages were...



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