Tag: Employment law

What Company Should Employ Your Expats in Canada?

By Rachel Ravary of McCarthy Tetrault and Brian P. Smeenk, formerly with McCarthy Tetrault When you send an employee to work in Canada, what company should be named as the employer? Your U.S. company? A Canadian subsidiary or affiliate? Perhaps your parent company? Why is this important? It’s important to be clear about which company […]

More On Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

In the truth is stranger than fiction category, I recently re-discovered a case in which a Hooter’s waitress in Florida sued her employer for tricking her about a prize in a beer-selling contest.  The waitress thought she would win a Toyota if she sold the most beer.  However, after she won the contest, her manager […]

Getting a Dismissed Employee’s Last Meeting Right

By Donovan Plomp of McCarthy Tetrault and Karen Sargeant, formerly with McCarthy Tetrault Spring will soon be upon us, and with it may come the urge to do some “spring cleaning” in the home and the workplace. This might mean ending an employment relationship that isn’t working out. In Canada, which has no concept of […]

How to Say Goodbye to an Employee

Many folks will tell you that the relationship between an employee and his employer is a lot like a marriage or a long-term personal relationship. The breakup of that relationship can be nasty, particularly if it has been a long-term association and one of the parties believes he has been treated unfairly. The situation can […]

Video Technology Changing Interviewing Process

When you think about interviewing job candidates, what comes to mind? The interviewee makes sure his clothes are neatly pressed (and free of stains) and that his hair is combed, teeth are brushed, and palms are dry for the inevitable interviewer handshake. Well, today that handshake may never happen. Technology, especially video technology, is radically […]

How Starbucks Saved My Life

Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews the book How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill. Review highlight’s some of the books lessons about how Gates’ perspective changed after he worked “on the other side of the counter.” Gill was a top dog at a big ad firm with lots of “do-re-mi” and perks. […]

Health and Safety Legislative and Regulatory Responses

by Daniel Pugen McCarthy Tetrault Workplace violence has become a hot topic among labor, employment, and health and safety regulators in Canada. Of course, workplace violence is hardly a new phenomenon. Certain workers like police officers have an inherent risk of workplace violence. Also, put enough people in an enclosed area under stressful conditions (i.e., […]

Wage and Hour Compliance Essentials for Employers

by Kara Shea Wage and hour compliance issues are probably the single greatest source of worry (and sleepless nights) for employers, at least those who are reading the headlines. In the last several years, employers around the country have been hit with huge damages awards in wage and hour litigation or have agreed to pay […]

3 Questions Employers Should Ask in Discrimination Cases

In discrimination cases filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, first, the employee must establish a prima facie (minimally sufficient) case of discrimination. Once he does that, the burden shifts to the employer to produce evidence that he was rejected or someone else was preferred for a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason. This […]

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

Here is an interesting one. Earlier this week, the mayor of a small town in Oregon was fired after the town learned that there were pictures on the Internet of their esteemed leader posing in front of a fire truck in a black lace bra and panty set. The photographs were taken before she was […]