Top 10 mistakes to avoid when hiring your first employee

For this week’s blog, we have gathered a list of the top 10 mistakes commonly made by freelancers and startups when hiring their first employee.  Avoiding these pitfalls will help start you off on the right foot and avoid the hiring headaches!

We’ve also covered our Top 10 list in this month’s SpringForward Legal Updates if you prefer to watch the webinar instead. Email us for the replay link.

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Sexual Harassment in the Fundraising Donor Space – Part Two

Firstly, Happy May Day and Happy International Workers’ Day!

This week we will be continuing our series on Sexual Harassment in the Fundraising Donor Space and exploring situations where needed donations or funding come with strings attached.

If you haven’t read our Part One, you may want to check it out before reading on.

In our previous post, we discussed the employer’s obligation to protect workers from violence, harassment and sexual harassment in the workplace and covered the broad definition of the workplace. Then we posed a variety of tough questions around what to do when the perpetrator of that violence or harassment towards the worker is someone the organization needs. Is tolerating bad behaviour from an important donor just the cost of doing business? And if so, what are the costs?

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Sexual Harassment in the Fundraising Donor Space – Part One

We have talked a lot about workplace sexual harassment on this blog. Practising exclusively in workplace law we, unfortunately, see the issue of workplace sexual harassment come up a lot. Helping employers and employees of all shapes and sizes deal with issues related to sexual harassment makes up a lot of what we do.

Employer Obligations

Ontario organizations and businesses, be they big or small, for-profit or non-profit, as long as they have at least one worker of some type, paid or unpaid, have obligations regarding workplace harassment, violence and sexual harassment under the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), as well as the Ontario Human Rights Code. Other provinces have similar legislation and employer obligations. Employers must take steps to protect workers from violence, harassment and sexual harassment on the job and in the workplace.

Workplace, by the way, does not just mean the physical office or worksite but any land, premises, location or thing at, upon, in or near which a worker works. If a worker goes on a work trip, attends an event as part of their job, or travels to a client site then those places are also the workplace and the employer’s obligation to keep the worker safe travels with them.

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Let’s talk ergonomics!

You may be scratching your head at our title. What’s ergonomics got to do with law? Maybe even asking, what the heck is ergonomics? Well in this post we will answer both of those questions and tell you why workplace ergonomics should be on the radar of employees and employers alike.

Ergonomics is the science and study of working conditions with respect to the physical body and duties of the worker.  If you work in the public sector or a large organization you’ve probably heard this word, maybe you have even had an occupational therapist come and give you an ergonomic assessment! Lucky you! Ergonomic adjustments for office workers will include things like chairs, standing desks, special keyboards or computer displays.

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Bill 66 Passes

Bill 66 has passed! Further to our past post on Bill 66 the oh so neutrally named Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act received Royal Assent in the Ontario legislature on April 3, 2019.

This Bill ushers in further changes to the Ontario workplace statutory landscape, with amendments to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA), the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (LRA) and the Pension Benefits Act (PBA). The ESA and PBA changes are now in effect. The majority of the LRA changes will come into effect on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.

Changes to the ESA

The changes to the ESA came into force on April 3, 2019, and have a practical impact on workplaces where overtime is common and where employees work more than the ESA maximum weekly hours of work – 48 hours.

Bill 66 amends the ESA to remove the requirement that employers obtain the approval from the Director of Employment Standards regarding agreements with employees or bargaining units on overtime and excess weekly hours of work.

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Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment Law – Part 2

Last week we discussed traditional ways of resolving employment law disputes. This week we will dig into the alternative!

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

Given the limitations of formal dispute resolution processes (for more on this check out our post from last week), the use of ADR has increased in significance.   ADR involves the implementation of a range of techniques – such as negotiation, use of technology and risk mitigation strategies – to resolve disputes or avoid them entirely.

Workplace disputes can be emotionally charged as they often involve the messy dynamics of human relationships.  Still, most claims will have a monetary value attached to them. A key part of the dispute resolution strategy, for both employees and employers, should involve getting the best deal possible.  As informational asymmetries decrease with constantly evolving legal research technologies, parties should increasingly have an objective assessment of what a claim is worth. This is why our lawyers at SpringLaw use artificial intelligence, for example, to determine reasonable notice periods with an unprecedented level of accuracy.  The closer we can get both sides to agree to the value of the claim, the more quickly a dispute can be resolved, with less money spent on lawyers.

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