First Reference Talks

Discussions on Human Resources, Employment Law, Payroll and Internal Controls

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BYOD: is personal information visible over corporate networks?

Employers are increasingly drafting and implementing bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies for their employees. And they should be, since employees are increasingly using their personal digital devices—phones, tablets, laptops—to perform work, both in and out of the workplace. But employees may have trouble trusting their employers to stay out of their personal information...

By | 3 Minutes Read

Some legal pitfalls of security breaches to your company’s electronic data

The recent loss of a Canadian government hard drive containing personal information of receivers of student loans and the ensuing class action lawsuit are a stark reminder of how easy it is to be exposed to the pitfalls of data security breaches. In this day and age, when company data is stored on small, mobile devices, all it takes is an absent-minded employee leaving their USB key or smarthpone on the subway.

By | 3 Minutes Read

After hours access to work may lead to overtime claims

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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Established in 1995, First Reference Inc. (known as La Référence in Quebec) provides Canadian organizations of any size with practical and authoritative resources to help ensure compliance.

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