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An Employer’s Guide to Managing Employees with Progressive Discipline

An Employer’s Guide to Managing Employees with Progressive DisciplineIf you’re an employer, you know that, whether you have 10 employees or 100, there is an art to managing your workforce and a well-oiled human resource process is necessary for a well-run business. You invest a lot of time and money into your employees and, understandably, expect attendance, productivity, and proper work conduct in return that will benefit your business as a whole. 

If you have employees who aren’t meeting the expectations of their role, it’s important not to have a knee-jerk reaction. Instead, progressive discipline gives both the employer and employee the opportunity to get on the same page and provides the employee with a roadmap for improvement.

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SpringLaw is Hiring a Marketing Manager

hiring marketing manager

Come join SpringLaw’s smart, tech-forward team!

We are a busy team of lawyers looking for a marketing wiz to help spread the word to employers and employees who could really use our innovative tech-forward legal solutions. This is the perfect role for a marketing generalist who is passionate about employment law, or law in general. If you are a brand-builder, with a talent for project management, and you’re looking for a high-impact position to grow your career, SpringLaw might be for you!

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Don’t Leave it to Luck: Update Employment Contracts Following Substantial Changes to the Job

Update Employment Contracts Following Substantial Changes to the JobWith St. Patrick’s Day having just passed, many of us start to bank on luck at this time of the year. While luck might get you to the end of the rainbow on some things, we wouldn’t recommend that you lean on luck when it comes to non-existent, outdated or incomplete employment contracts. 

The Consequences of Leaving it up to Luck

First, in case you’re new here or need a quick refresher, employment contracts are often recommended by lawyers and adopted by employers to bring a level of certainty to the employment relationship. Employment contracts can achieve a variety of things but generally, they set out the responsibilities and expectations of the employee and employer. If the employment relationship is bound by provincial employment standards legislation (it usually is), then the contract has to, at the very least, uphold the minimum standards of the applicable legislation. 

If your employment contract runs afoul of the applicable employment standards legislation by failing to uphold the minimum standards as required by the law, your contract could be deemed unenforceable. Contracts could also be found to be unenforceable if they fail to comply with the principles of contract law. 

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Update on COVID-19 Layoff Provisions

COVID-19 Layoff ProvisionsThis past Monday marked the three-year anniversary of the date the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Since that fateful day in 2020, a lot has changed. Though there remain areas where transmission rates are still high, increased vaccination rates, higher immunity, and public health measures have helped curtail the spread of the virus and significantly decreased the rate of new infections in Canada. 

As a result, many provinces and territories are revoking laws that were amended or implemented as a result of the virus. For example, about a month ago, Alberta repealed the COVID-19 layoff provisions in its Employment Standards Code (the “ESC”). This followed a trend we saw with the federal government as well as many other provinces such as Ontario. 

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ChatGPT and AI Disruption of the Law

ChatGPT and AI Disruption of the LawThe sensationalism surrounding ChatGPT that has developed since its launch on November 30, 2022, has been fascinating to observe.  For the uninitiated, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (“AI”) chatbot that provides detailed responses based on conversational prompts from the user.  It will compose pretty much anything you ask it to – whether it be an e-mail or an essay – and it will do so in a matter of seconds.  

ChatGPT quickly made headlines following its debut as students started using it to do their homework assignments and journalists responded with shock as they tested its ability to write news articles for them.  The sentiment from some vocal sources was negative and painted a dire picture regarding the impact ChatGPT could have in education and various industries – including legal services.  

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Top 3 Employment Law Risks in a Virtual Workplace

Employment Law Risks in a Virtual WorkplaceOur modern, post-pandemic world continues to evolve into a new era of work. As workplaces increasingly move towards remote or at least hybrid environments, companies are sorting out how to build infrastructures that support ongoing culture, performance and customer satisfaction.

Our law firm has been virtual since we started out in 2017. Not only do we advise clients every day about their virtual workplace legal risks, but we experiment every day with virtual approaches and issues internally with our own team to continue to build a healthy and happy virtual business. 

Here are the top 3 employment law risks we run across when businesses are solidifying their remote workplace. 

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