Employer liability
October 17, 2018 De Bousquet PC Barristers and Solicitors Employee Relations, Human Resources, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll
In a recent case titled Lalonde v. Sena Solid Waste Holdings Inc. 2017 ABQB 374, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench considered whether failing to hear an employee’s side of the story before dismissing him for cause could increase an employer’s liability.
aggravated damages, bad faith termination, Employer liability, employment law, wrongful dismissal
August 16, 2016 Vey Willetts LLP Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll
Despite workplace boredom being a mundane reality of some working lives, it may also be the catalyst for more serious workplace concerns. At the extreme, in limited circumstances, boredom could even form the basis for constructive dismissal.
banishment rooms, bore out, breach of contract, constructive dismissal, employee absenteeism, Employee illness, Employer liability, employment law, employment relationship, loss of workplace productivity, occupational health and safety act, punitive damages, safe and healthy work environment, unhealthy workforce, workplace boredom
August 25, 2014 Stringer LLP Employee Relations, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Penalties and Fines, Privacy and Security
Your employee is on Facebook over her lunch break, when she notices that her friend’s brother is the President of a start-up that could likely use your company’s services. She retrieves his email address from Facebook and sends him an email from her company email account, looking to arrange a coffee meeting to catch up and perhaps talk business. This scenario is one of many vulnerabilities facing Canadian employers since the coming into force of the new Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation
Anti-spam, Business, Canadian anti-spam legislation, CEMs, civil litigation, commercial electronic messages, company email account, consent, Consent must be explicit, contact information, distribution list, electronic business communications not consented to by their recipient, electronic communications, email, Employer liability, employment law, marketing, mass email marketing, opt-in, opt-out, penalties and civil liability, social media platforms, spam, unsubscribe link requirement
July 21, 2014 Marcia Scheffler Employee Relations, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Training and Development
So don’t get me wrong, I love staff picnics and BBQs as much as anyone and think they are a great opportunity for staff to bond outside of their regular departments and duties. In fact as HR it is often both my responsibility and pleasure to help plan these events for my organization! However when you start to think about what can go wrong from an employer responsibility perspective rather than an employee engagement perspective; you begin to wonder if the prospective summer BBQ will balloon into a colossal blunder.
assess risk of accidents, employee BBQ, employee engagement, employee picnic, Employer liability, employment law, mitigating risk, risk assessment, staff BBQ, staff picnic, team building, team building activities, workplace harassment and discrimination, workplace risk assessments
February 28, 2014 Kevin Sambrano, Sambrano Legal Services Employee Relations, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll
The recent human rights decision of Morgan v. Herman Miller Canada Inc. examines the issue of employer liability under the Human Rights Code of Ontario. What happens when there are allegations of discrimination but no findings?
discrimination, Employer liability, employment law, harassment, human rights tribunal, Kevin Sambrano, Morgan v. Herman Miller Canada Inc, Ontario human rights commission, Ontario Human Rights Commission Policy, prohibited grounds of discrimination, reprisal, responsibilities of accommodation and safety, termination, workplace harassment
October 2, 2013 Employer Advisor, McCarthy Tétrault LLP Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Privacy and Security, Training and Development
More than 19 million Canadians check Facebook at least once per month and 14 million check every day. There are more than 200 million active users of Twitter, and around 400 million tweets sent daily. LinkedIn boasts 8 million Canadian users. These stats confirm what you probably already know: your employees are on social media. They are likely on social media multiple times a day, which means that they are likely using social media at work.
blog post, canadian employment law, confidential/proprietary information, discipline up to and including termination, Employer liability, employer's reputation, employment law, facebook, Facebook postings, harassment policy, hours of work, HR Law, IT department monitors use of social media in the workplace, LinkedIn, policies and procedures, social media, social media at work, social media policy, tweets, twitter, workplace, workplace-related harassment, York Regional Police, YouTube
September 13, 2013 Alison J. Bird Employee Relations, Human Resources, Human Rights, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll, Recruiting and Hiring, Wages and Compensation
While many employers in Canada understand that they have obligations under human rights legislation, they likely do not appreciate that they can also be liable if a consultant contracted to provide services on their behalf engages in discriminatory action. This is what occurred in Ontario in the recent case of Reiss v CCH Canadian Limited, 2013 HRTO 764.
age discrimination, agent of the employer, canadian employment law, CCH Canadian Limited, communication, discrimination, discrimination on the basis of age, discriminatory action, Employer liability, employer liable, employment law, HR consultants, human resources consultant, human rights obligations, injury to dignity, injury to his dignity feelings and self-respect, interview, Job application, job candidate, job interview, junior candidates with lower salary expectations, legal writer, ontario, Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, potential liability, Reiss v CCH Canadian Limited, salary expectations, suggestive of a stereotyped assumption that an older person would necessarily want a higher salary, Testing
September 5, 2013 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Employee Relations, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll, Source Deductions and Reporting, Wages and Compensation
Four hundred and sixty-two people responded to our recent poll, Can you hold employees financially responsible for damaged workplace equipment (e.g., cellphone, laptop)? Of the respondents, 167 (36.15 percent) indicated yes. However, 148 (32.03 percent) disagreed and 147 (31.82 percent) were not sure. So, what is the right answer?
breakage or loss of equipment, canadian employment law, company property, cost of doing business, damaged workplace equipment, dishonest or wilful act, Duty of care, employee intentionally omitted or committed a wrongful act, Employee liability, employee's gross negligence, employees financially responsible for damage to company property, employees financially responsible for damaged workplace equipment, Employer liability, employment law, Employmetn contract, lost or damaged employer-owned equipment, negligence that caused the loss or damage, policies and procedures, property damage in the course of their employment
July 11, 2013 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Wages and Compensation
The three most viewed articles on HRinfodesk this week deal with breach of confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements; how an employer was held liable despite the employee having suffered no discrimination; and how individuals can now delay receiving their Old Age Security pension plan.
Breach of confidentiality clauses, canadian employment law, damages for injury, discrimination, Employer liability, employment law, human rights code, human rights tribunal, OAS, old age security, release, restrictive covenant, retirement, settlement agreements, severance package, termination, terminations, Voluntary deferral
February 12, 2013 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Employee Relations, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Union Relations, Wages and Compensation
It seems that the majority of respondents to our recent HRinfodesk poll believe that they do need a cellphone policy. Last September we asked you: Does your company have a cellphone policy? 289 (61.75 percent) respondents out of 468 said they do; 163 (34.83 percent) respondents indicated they did not have a cellphone policy; and 16 believed they did not need one. So do you need one or not?
careless driving, cellphone policy, cellphone use, cellphones, collective agreements, complying with the policy, criminal negligence causing death or injury, dangerous driving, Distracted driving, Does your company have a cellphone policy?, employee's personal use, Employer liability, employers can be held liable for employees involved in an accident, employment contracts, employment law, hand-held cellphone, HR, HRinfodesk, in the course of employment, policies and procedures, providing employees with hands-free devices, safe cellphone practices, should cellphones be subsidized?, subsidizing the cost of employees' personal cellphone for work use can be costly, talking on a company cellphone while driving, taxable benefit, use of cellphones while on company business, vicarious liability
June 29, 2012 David Hyde Employee Relations, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Privacy and Security
The Conservative government is poised to enact the first substantive expansion of citizen’s arrest laws in Canada since 1955. The catalyst for the Bill C-26 amendment to the citizen’s arrest section of the Criminal Code of Canada was the 2010 case of Toronto grocer David Chen who faced criminal assault charges after performing a citizen’s arrest of a habitual thief he had seen stealing from his store earlier in the day.
Bill C-26, citizen's arrest, citizen's arrest by employees, criminal code, criminal offence, David Chen, Employer liability, employment law, non-security employees, Pope v. Route 66 Clothing Inc., private security, R v. Chen et. al., reasonable time, risk management, Section 494, The Citizen’s Arrest and Self-defence Act, training, vicarious liability, video surveillance, violence, workplace hazard, workplace theft or assault, workplace violence
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
April 15, 2010 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources
The reliance on cellphones has led to an increase in talking on a cellphone while driving. Statistics show that driving while talking or texting on a cellphone is leading to driver distractions that cause car accidents. That’s why, on April 14, 2010, the Alberta government introduced…
2010, Alberta, ban on cellphone use, Bill 16, cellphone use, Employer liability, the Traffic Safety (Distracted Driving) Amendment Act, Traffic Safety Act, vicarious liability
April 9, 2010 Earl Altman Human Resources, Privacy and Security
Recent case law and new technologies have raised the prospect of employer liability for the statements of employees on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
canadian employment law, employee handbook, Employer liability, policies and procedures, policy manual, social media, social media activities at work
My employer denied me the right to have a support person present at a meeting with HR regarding an investigation into workplace bullying and psychological... – Feb 02, 2:14 PM
Which is more practical, absolutely no office romance policy or allowed but need to disclose? IMO, the need to disclose, while accommodating, complexity and unnecessary... – Dec 15, 1:39 PM
