What A Headache (Part 2) – Challenges Of AB 1522 (California Paid Sick Leave)

Nothing in California is easy for employers, and California’s new paid sick leave statute (AB 1522) is no exception.

Here is the first challenge. While employers can make employees give notice of paid sick time when foreseeable, they can’t really punish employees who take time off that is not foreseeable, because the statute prevents retaliation against any employee for using sick leave (or even requesting to use it). Employers are also prohibited from requiring employees […]

By | September 21st, 2014 ||

Canada: Dismissal Without Hearing Of Human Rights Complaint Upheld By Ontario Court

In Gill v Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, the Ontario Divisional Court concluded that it is appropriate for the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (the “Tribunal”) to summarily dismiss an application where its prior jurisprudence suggests that the application has no reasonable prospect of success.

Gill was a suppression firefighter who was terminated at age 60 pursuant to a mandatory retirement provision in the collective agreement between the Hamilton Professional Firefighters’ Association (the “Association”) and […]

By | September 19th, 2014 ||

Employer's Electronic Communications Policy Negates Expectation Of Privacy In Employee's Work Computer

Adding its voice to the growing body of cases illustrating the importance of electronic communications policies, a federal court in Virginia ruled earlier this year that an employee had no reasonable expectation of privacy in personal files stored on his work computer where his employer maintained a policy that clearly informed him that he should have no such expectation. Walsh v. Logothetis (E.D. Va. Jan. 21, 2014).

The plaintiff in the case, Thomas Walsh, began […]

By | September 10th, 2014 ||