Tag: Employment law

The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life’s Dreams

Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka looks at the book The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life’s Dreams by Yahoo! executive Tim Sanders. Here are a few big ideas for HR professionals and others from Yahoo! executive Tim Sanders’ latest book, The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve […]

Jobless Rate Rises in Canada, Too

by Karen Sargeant The United States is not the only country being hit by increasing unemployment rates — Canada is being hit, too. Although not as high as unemployment figures in the US, Canadian figures put unemployment at 6.6%. So where is Canada being hit the most? The following statistics from the Labour Force Survey […]

Changes in Employment Law and the Workplace Under Obama and New Congress

by Al Vreeland As with old girlfriends, we don’t always appreciate what we have in life until we don’t have it anymore. Employers have enjoyed pretty smooth sailing for almost a decade now. The feds have imposed relatively few new regulations, the courts have looked at most employment lawsuits with a skeptical eye, and unions […]

Reducing Personnel Costs and Helping Workers Have Work-life Balance

by Sarah McAdams For some companies, layoffs will be inevitable. If your company is part of that “some,” of course you’ll do everything you can before conceding that a workforce reduction is the only option. Just make sure that “everything” includes exploring a potential work-life balance solution. That’s right, even in this bleak economy when […]

A Really Hostile Environment

Litigation value: $ 30,000 There is no question that Jim Halpert, acting manager at Dunder Mifflin Scranton while Michael Scott was away, did a terrible job of diffusing and/or preventing a fight on company property on “The Duel” episode of The Office. Fortunately, the fight between Dwight Schrute and Andy Bernard didn’t lead to any serious […]

A ‘Routine’ Background Check in Canada? There’s No Such Thing

by Derek Knoechel In 1990, a 21-year-old woman was caught shoplifting. She then pleaded guilty to a charge of theft, receiving a conditional discharge. Some five years later, she applied for a position with the Montreal police force. So began a 13-year legal odyssey culminating in a Supreme Court of Canada decision (Montréal (City) v. […]

Employee Free Choice Act: What Employers Should Do Now

by Donald D. Berner and Forrest T. Rhodes The election of Barack Obama as the next president, coupled with the Democratic Party’s increased majority in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, is certain to bring changes. The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which President-elect Obama and Democratic congressional leaders vow to pass in […]

Sexual Orientation Discrimination and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act

by Gary Fealk There has been a push in recent years to provide homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual individuals with protection against discrimination, including discrimination in the workplace. There is even proposed federal legislation, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), on the horizon that may pass in the next session of Congress. Certain states have enacted discrimination […]

Important Labor and Employment Decisions Pending Before the Supreme Court

The current term of the U.S. Supreme Court provides a reminder that the drafters of the U.S. Constitution deliberately created a tension between continuity of law and responsiveness to changes in the majority’s wishes. We are on the cusp of a complete change in administration, with the likelihood of substantial changes in both statutory regime […]

Economy, Political Changes Could Create Perfect Storm for Employment Lawsuits

(Updated April 2009) by Boyd Byers Writer Sebastian Junger coined the phrase “perfect storm” to describe the simultaneous occurrence of different weather phenomena that combine to create a powerful nor’easter (a storm blowing from the northeast). Is a confluence of cultural, economic, and political events whipping up a perfect storm for employment law claims? Many […]