employee relations

Wal-Mart’s “deplorable” pre and post termination conduct results in a sizeable $750,000.00 moral and punitive damages award

January 15, 2018 Rubin Thomlinson LLP Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll, Penalties and Fines, Training and Development, Wages and Compensation

Recently, in Galea v. Wal-Mart (2017 ONSC 245) the Ontario Superior Court released a decision in a wrongful termination matter involving a Wal-Mart Executive Gail Galea (“Galea”) and the “reprehensible” termination conduct of Wal-Mart. In addition to the usual wrongful termination damages such as salary, benefits, bonuses, etc., the Court awarded a whopping $750,000.00 in moral and punitive damages combined.

contractual obligations, employee relations, employment law, Galea v. Wal-Mart, moral and punitive damages, punitive damages, terminations, workplace restructuring, wrongful dismissal

Workplace organizational behaviour part II: Perception

December 7, 2017 Christina Catenacci Human Resources, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development

Behaviour in the workplace is based on people’s perception of it. In this post, let’s examine how one’s perception influences productivity, absenteeism, turnover and job satisfaction.

Behaviour in the workplace, behavioural interview, Behavioural interview techniques, employee relations, Human Resources Strategy, job satisfaction, oganizational behaviour, perception, perception affects the workplace, workplace behavioral problems, workplace organizational behaviour

What is a right to request under employment standards?

December 4, 2017 Michele Glassford Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Wages and Compensation

With the new Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017 coming into force, new provisions have been put into place. One such provision is the right to request a change to work schedule or location. What are an employer’s obligations under this provision?

Bill 148, employee relations, employment law, Employment Standards Act 2000, fair workplaces better jobs act, Human Resources PolicyPro, human rights, policies and procedures, protected grounds of discrimination, right to request, The Changing Workplaces Review

$85,000.00 human rights award against employer in sexual harassment case upheld on appeal

July 31, 2017 De Bousquet PC Barristers and Solicitors Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Human Rights, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll

In a recent case titled Doyle v. Zochem Inc., the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a decision to award both moral damages and damages pursuant to the Human Rights Code without subtracting one from the other. This case serves as an example of how serious our Canadian Courts are now treating sexual harassment in the workplace.

damage awards for sexual harassment, double dipping, Doyle v. Zochem Inc, employee relations, employment law, human rights, human rights code, human rights damages, moral damages, Ontario Court of Appeal, sexual harassment

Should employers be entitled to require that their employees have a certain ‘look’?

September 1, 2011 Rudner Law, Employment / HR Law & Mediation Employee Relations, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Human Rights

Recently, I posted a discussion topic in The Canadian HR Law Group on LinkedIn, which I moderate. It turned out to be one of a few recent topics that generated substantial interest and comment. As a result, I thought I would revisit the issue here, and I hope to hear from all of the First Reference readers.

discrimination, dress code, employee relations, employment law, HR policies

High achievers = high anxieties in the workplace

August 12, 2011 Christina Catenacci Employee Relations, Human Resources, Recruiting and Hiring

Is there an overachiever at your workplace? Do you have trouble understanding and working with them? High achievers, sometimes known as workaholics, have been found to be secretly plagued by fears and self-doubts and prone to resist change. Though it is important to be hard-working and have a drive to achieve in order to be successful, it can get out of control.

burnout, employee relations, high achiever, high expectations, How to Manage Overachievers, HR, leadership, learning, management, overachiever, performance, work performance, workaholic

Individual privacy in the workplace – a case precedent

March 31, 2011 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Human Resources, Privacy and Security

On March 22, 2011, the Ontario Court of Appeal rendered a significant judgment concerning the protection of privacy in the workplace. Specifically, the Court determined that an employee had an expectation of privacy when using a laptop made available by the employer on which he was allowed to retain personal information.

canadian charter of rights and freedoms, child pornography, computer, conduct and behaviour, criminal code, employee relations, employment law, expectation of privacy, Individual privacy in the workplace, Internet and email use, search warrant, use the laptops for personal use, workplace policies, workplace privacy

Are our devices harming our health?

February 1, 2011 Adam Gorley Health and Safety, Human Resources

I’ve caved. The end of my phone contract has been looming large, and as I pondered my options, somehow I thought, “I’d really like to be more connected.” So I’m ditching my two-year-old, decidedly not smart, flip phone and getting an iPhone—and a data plan. Soon I’ll be able to tweet and update my Facebook status and share photos wherever I am. And I’m afraid.

conduct and behaviour, distraction, downtime, employee Internet use, employee relations, exhaustion, facebook, focus, hours of work and overtime claims, Internet, iPhone, multi-tasking, overtime, performance, productivity, risky behaviour, smartphones, social media, stall-call, stress, technology, twitter, wireless

Termination for cause upheld for breach of computer information access policy

January 28, 2011 Christina Catenacci Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources, Privacy and Security

Ontario’s Labour Arbitration Board recently held that an employer did not overreact when it terminated an IT employee for cause after he used an employer computer to download, store and share thousands of copyrighted works including movies, TV shows, music tracks, games and pornographic material, totalling over half a terabyte of data. The board found that the employee violated the employer’s trust in him and acted in flagrant disregard for the employer’s computer information access policy over many years.

computer information access policy, Copyright infringement, copyrighted works, Data breach, employee handbook, employee Internet use, employee relations, employment law, file sharing software, Illegal downloads, Internet Security, IT employee, Labour Arbitration Board, Network Security, policy manual, pornographic material, termination for cause

Sleeping on the job: not just for slackers

January 24, 2011 Adam Gorley Health and Safety, Human Resources

If you’re like most nine-to-five workers, you probably feel a bit slow sometime after lunch. Maybe you reach for another cup of coffee or tea. Maybe you grab some fresh air, a piece of fruit or something sweet and sugary to get you through. But in many cases what you really want is to place your head on your desk and close your eyes for a few minutes. Of course you can’t though—what employer in its right mind would let you do that?

conduct and behaviour, employee relations, Employees sleeping on the job, employees taking naps, employment law, productivity, sleeping on the job, The Energy Project, valid reasons to worry about workers napping, workplace performance

Robots in the workplace: freaky or fun(ctional)?

September 27, 2010 Adam Gorley Human Resources

I came across this story about a “tele-robot” via Twitter, and I didn’t know what to expect when I clicked through. Still, I wasn’t disappointed. It can’t bring you a coffee, but it can walk around and order someone else to get you a coffee. Well, it’s controller can.

artificial intelligence, assembly lines, employee relations, ethical issue of robots in the workplace, Future workplace, HR strategies, HR technology, human capital, Intelligent Mobile, job satisfaction, Labour shortage, machine tools or process equipment, Manufacturing, mechanical, office environments, Robots in the workplace

For small and medium-sized businesses, cross-training can be a lifesaver

July 26, 2010 Adam Gorley Human Resources, Training and Development

An organization with dedicated departments and strictly delineated staff roles might be easy to manage when things are running smoothly, but what happens when someone gets sick, goes on vacation or leaves the company, and there’s no one else who can perform that person’s duties? Or what if both employees who can perform a certain duty are away from work at the same time? The last thing you want to be doing is scrambling to figure out how to do something at the last minute when you expected it to be done a week before, or training someone to do something entirely new while that deadline looms.

cross-training, employee relations, succession planning, training, training and development, workplace management

Online indiscretions… well, you know the story

July 19, 2010 Adam Gorley Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources

We’ve heard a bunch of stories over the past year about companies firing or not hiring employees, or challenging their claims of illness, over inappropriate online behaviour, particularly comments and photos posted on Facebook and other social networking websites. While the media have made a big deal of these cases, none has had the profile of CNN’s recent firing of Middle East correspondent, Octavia Nasr. The US news giant felt Nasr had compromised her credibility by publicly tweeting her respect for a prominent Islamic cleric on his death. The Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah had ties to controversial political action group Hezbollah.

CNN, employee relations, employment contract, employment relationship, employment standards, facebook, Octavia Nasr, online comments, social networking, termination, termination with cause, twitter

The new age of workplace gossip – TMI!

April 26, 2010 Adam Gorley Human Resources, Human Rights, Privacy and Security

I’ve discussed workplace gossip here before, and what bosses can do to prevent it or at least reduce the potential harm, but there are a couple of hyper-modern developments that I didn’t get into: reality television and the Internet. These two things have created a culture of “sharing”, for lack of a better word, that encourages people at play or work to divulge the most mundane and private details of their lives to others—the kind of information that one previously might only have shared with family or best friends.

employee relations, Employer liability, gossip, oversharing, personal information, privacy, social media

Employee expense fraud

April 13, 2010 Colin Braithwaite Employee Relations, Human Resources

Employee fraud is on the rise, as organizations cut back on staff, and their internal controls slacken as a result. However, the monetary loss is just the beginning of the problem. A recent white paper from Grant Thornton LLP notes that, “Failure to crack down on this unethical—and indeed criminal—behaviour blurs the line between right and wrong. It creates a culture of entitlement that can extend across the business. And it can open the door to more significant corporate theft.”

corporate theft, employee expenses, employee fraud, employee relations, employee theft, expense controls, FAPP, Finance and Accounting PolicyPro, Grant Thornton, policies and procedures, workplace policies