You are here

Labour & employment law column by Robert Smithson

MAKING THE CALL ON WORKPLACE CELL PHONE ABUSE

Of all the technological developments causing employers to lament a loss of attentiveness in the workplace, the cellular telephone must be the undisputed champion.  As recent events involving the Canadian Pacific Railway Company have indicated, the distraction of cellular telephones can have dangerous results.

USE WRITING AS A TOOL, DON’T BE ONE

In his recent article, “Small Firms, Big Lawyers: 20 Ways to Write Like a Tool”, Jay Shepherd laid bare lawyers’ various writing offences. I saw too much of myself in his list and also saw examples of errors commonly made by employers when communicating in writing with employees.
 
Even with all the technology at our disposal, the written word is still our primary mode of communication. It is important for us all – employers included – to write in a way that gets our message across without confusing or offending readers.
 
Like lawyers, I see employers commit writing offences time after time. As we start off the new year, perhaps one way for employers to work on improving their employee relations is to assess, and refine, their writing style.
 
Shepherd’s number one example of how lawyers tend to “write like a tool” is their use of the phrase “pursuant to”. He says, and I agree, that “no real person would ever say ‘pursuant to’ in conversation.”

BEING SANTA AIN’T ALL IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE

Lots of weird and (occasionally) wonderful things happen in the workplace.  Standing in as Santa for a few weeks each December is certainly no exception.

In Vancouver last week, police were called to the Rusty Gull pub after a couple of Santas enjoying some “Christmas spirits” apparently took offence to another patron.  The man was apparently seen approaching the two jolly fellows in red inside the bar.

TAKING SOME OF THE “HIT” OUT OF HOCKEY

The N.H.L. has a massive workplace issue.  It isn’t Canucks’ fans’ ongoing love/hate relationship with Roberto Luongo and it isn’t the fact that yet another organization has bought into the myth of Tomas Kaberle as an elite player.

The issue which threatens to undermine the N.H.L., in a variety of ways, is concussions.  The whole matter came to a head, so to speak, when Sidney Crosby became the latest victim of blows to the head. 

WorkSafeBC WATERS DOWN LATE NIGHT RETAIL PROTECTIONS

In 2008, the B.C. government enacted occupational health and safety rules governing employees working alone or in isolation.  There were three new categories of workplace protection introduced at that time, one of which now seems to have been substantially watered down.

The first of the 2008 rules continues to apply to all employers.  They must identify, eliminate, and control hazards before a worker is assigned to work alone or in isolation.  And they must develop and implement a procedure for checking the well-being of any worker who is assigned to work alone or in isolation.

TEN POLICIES EVERY EMPLOYER NEEDS

The range of policies which might be contained in an employee handbook is really unlimited. There are, however, certain core policies every employer should implement.
 
The list starts with a harassment policy. This policy sets out the employer’s stance forbidding workplace harassment (including sexual harassment and other forms, such as bullying). It should also provide a complaint resolution process and define the range of disciplinary measures which may be imposed on the offender.
 
Second, all workplaces must now have a personal information protection policy (sometimes referred to simply as a privacy policy). This establishes the workplace rules regarding the protection of personal information of customers and employees. It will provide mechanisms for accessing and revising personal information and a complaint resolution process.
 

THE INS AND OUTS OF MORAL DAMAGES

Canadian courts seem to have had something of a love-hate relationship with so-called moral damages in wrongful dismissal cases. I’d say that’s because the traditional damages for wrongful dismissal, based on the concept of pay in lieu of reasonable notice, don’t take account of the employer’s conduct.
 
The normal factors considered when awarding damages for wrongful dismissal include things like the individual’s age, tenure of employment, position and salary, level of managerial responsibility, and likely ability to find another job. These factors are largely objective in nature and don’t account in any way for the employer’s conduct in the course of dismissal.
 
Yet, it’s an ongoing theme of wrongful dismissal claims that employees seek additional compensation as a result of the manner of dismissal. Awarding damages in those circumstances seems to have proven to be a challenge for our courts – there has been a noticeable reluctance to embark on assessing employers’ conduct and assigning a dollar value to the resulting impact on fired employees.
 

R.C.M.P. BACK IN HOT WATER OVER EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

It’s a bad sign for an organization when an employee complains of persistent sexual harassment from her superiors. It may be even worse when that employee has, for years, been the public face of the organization.
 
That’s the situation British Columbia’s R.C.M.P. finds itself in as a result of public allegations by Corporal Catherine Galliford of sexual harassment. Galliford alleged, in a 115 page internal complaint, that she faced constant sexual advances from several senior officers from the moment she graduated from the RCMP Academy in 1991.
 
Galliford reportedly stated that the command and control structure at the RCMP means Mounties are instructed to do as they're told, or risk getting reprimanded. She was quoted as saying, "If they can't screw you, they are going to screw you over. And that's what it became like and so I started to normalize the harassment because I didn't know what else to do".
 

CONTROLLING SEASONAL PARTY ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

It’s that time of year when good boys and girls start looking ahead to receiving gifts and their parents anticipate the seasonal office party.  Controlling alcohol consumption at those parties substantially increases the odds of parents, and their employer, having a happy and healthy holiday season.

BACKGROUND CHECKS USING SOCIAL MEDIA SITES

If you’re a person who wants to find information about another person, where better to start your search than online locations such as Facebook, Twitter, or any of two hundred or so other social media sites?  And if you’re an employer who wants to find out about a candidate’s background, why wouldn’t you take advantage of the same online sources?

Apparently enough employers have taken that open-minded view that B.C.’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner considered it necessary to weigh in on the practice of harvesting information from social media sites.

Pages

Subscribe to Labour & employment law column by Robert Smithson