You are here

Labour & employment law column by Robert Smithson

Y’ALL COME BACK NOW, HEAR?

The weird world of employment law sometimes compels employees to go back to work for the very employer which fired them. Recently, just such a case played out in the Ontario Superior Court.

Chevalier had been employed by about 32 years when he was laid off from his employment by Active Tire & Auto Centre Inc. He responded by suing for damages constructive dismissal.

That fact, alone, was not surprising. Employers commonly fall into the trap of thinking they can lay off employees without any ramifications.

NOBODY LIKES A SQUEALER

The life of a whistleblower appears to be a lonely one. I imagine that nobody knows that better, right now, than Edward Snowden.

 

Snowden, as you surely know, is a former contractor with the American National Security Agency (NSA) and a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In June, he turned over to the news media documents revealing a massive, widespread and top-secret NSA program to compile telephone records and other online communications data ostensibly in the cause of antiterrorism and counterintelligence.

 

UNION MEMBERS SHOULD THINK TWICE ABOUT HIRING THEIR OWN LAWYER

Union members who are unhappy with the representation they’re being provided by their union will sometimes seek outside legal advice. In doing so, they should first understand the implications of taking that step and the limited role an outside lawyer may have.

 

Your union is your legal representative in your employment relationship. In all legal senses, it speaks on your behalf and has ultimate decision-making authority regarding matters of employment arising out of the collective agreement.

 

UNIONS WIN LATEST BATTLE OVER ALCOHOL TESTING

One of the great and long-running battlegrounds in the world of employment law is mandatory, random testing for impairment. The latest round of that battle – on the eastern front – has been won, handily, by the trade unions.

 

Irving Pulp & Paper Limited operates a kraft paper mill along the banks of the St. John River in the city of Saint John, New Brunswick. In 2006, Irving unilaterally adopted a workplace policy for mandatory and random alcohol testing, by breathalyser, for employees holding safety sensitive positions.

 

PUT SOME NAVY SEAL IN YOUR H.R. PLANNING

The book, “No Easy Day” by Mark Owen is a first-person account of the lead up to, and execution of, the U.S. Navy Seal mission that killed Osama Bin Laden. If there’s a lesson that story brings home, it’s that there’s only so much value to planning and that reacting effectively is the key to success.

 

In the spring of 2011, Owen was assigned to a highly secret operation which would train at a military base in North Carolina. Every detail of Bin Laden’s suspected compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan had been reconstructed from aerial surveillance (video and still images).

SNC’S AMNESTY LIKELY TO DRIVE EMPLOYEES UNDERGROUND

If there’s Canadian a name in the news – for the wrong reasons – more frequently than Toronto’s Rob Ford these days it has to be SNC-Lavalin. The huge Montreal-based engineering firm seems to be hit every week by new allegations of bribery, fraud, and generally unsavory business dealings.

 

SNC has now announced a short “amnesty” for employee whistleblowers. It says it won’t seek damages or unilaterally fire employees who (between June 3 and August 31) report violations of its code of ethics.

 

A HARD DAYS NIGHT IN THE PUBLIC EYE

 If you carry out your work in the public eye, I think you have to expect there are going to be good times and bad times. If your name happens to be Duffy, Wallin, Dix, or Ford, you’ve likely had better weeks than the last few.

The news media, whether on the airwaves or in print or online, is abuzz with discussion of the fates and fortunes of these public figures. Though, as is sometimes the case, I wonder whether the discussion may be missing some key points.

PITFALLS OF PURCHASING EMPLOYEES

The sale of a business can have a substantial emotional and practical impact upon the employees. The related legal issues for purchaser and vendor, and for their lawyers, are no less significant.

 

Legally, the employment impacts of the sale of a business are numerous and they flow from both statutory sources and the common law. They can be problematic, particularly when the existing employees flow to the purchaser of the business.

 

HEY, GALEN, TRY A FRESH APPROACH

“Thrown out with all the rusted, tangled, dented goddamn miseries.” Jann Arden’s lyric came to mind as I read a stack of articles about the garment factory collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

 

Well over 600 workers have been killed, and more are still unaccounted for. It was a senseless, reckless, negligent workplace tragedy that is just the latest in an ongoing series of such disasters in places far away where clothes are produced for stores located very nearby.

 

STATISTICS TELL WHEN OUR BEST YEARS ARE BEHIND US

Like many people, I spent a fair portion of the past weekend following “Another Major Golf Tournament That Tiger Didn’t Win” (known more widely as the 2013 Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia). It occurred to me that one thing sports does well – depressingly so – is reveal the moment in time when an athlete’s best years have passed on by.

 

Pages

Subscribe to Labour & employment law column by Robert Smithson