Tausi Insider

The question I work night shifts at my company, however, the HR department only works from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I would like to book an appointment with them to discuss some concerns I have about my manager and they say that I need to come in during work hours to meet with them in person. It’s inconvenient for me to come in during the 9-5. Should I be compensated for the meeting time? Does the HR department have an obligation to meet with me during my working hours if I need to discuss workplace concerns? The first answer Marion Blight , associate, Randy Ai Law Office, Toronto I’m sorry that you are having difficulty accessing your employer’s human resources, but there isn’t really a special obligation here for HR to be the one who accommodates your schedule. If you would like to have this meeting, then it can happen on their terms, within reason. However, whoever is required to come in during their off hours to handle this matter should at least be compensated. HR would certainly be wo...

An employee at Neal Brothers picks products at their warehouse and office in Richmond Hill, Ont., on Nov. 17, 2022. The company says it has offered employees paid sick leave for years. Christopher Katsarov/Tausi Insider Most provinces have not made permanent changes to sick-leave laws during the pandemic, despite a sharp rise in respiratory illnesses and pressure from Ottawa for provincial governments to match a new federal sick-day law that comes into effect next month. For more than two years, labour and health care groups have urged governments to set minimum numbers of paid sick days, so workers don’t have to choose between staying home – and losing wages – or going in to work sick. But few governments have listened. “During the pandemic, it became very clear to everyone who was not an essential worker how bad things were for essential workers,” said Deena Ladd, executive director of Workers’ Action Centre, a non-profit group that advocates for low-wage, undocumented and migrant...

THE QUESTION I just left my abusive husband. In our last interaction, we were both charged with DUI and assault. I am looking for employment and I was wondering how I can explain this in an interview. Am I obligated to disclose these charges to every company I apply to? THE FIRST ANSWER Samantha Lamb , partner, Jewitt McLuckie & Associates, Ottawa The answer mainly depends on two factors: the type of job you are applying for and the province you live in. For example, in Ontario, some jobs ask for a type of police record check that only lists convictions, not charges; other jobs, particularly those working with children or the elderly, require a check that lists not only convictions and charges, but potentially other interactions with the police. Only the latter type would reveal to a potential employer that you have outstanding charges. There is also no consistency in what human-rights codes say across Canada regarding what employers can ask. In Ontario, an employer can ask for r...

If an employer is facing a “shortage” of workers, there is a simple solution: offer higher wages. Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail Don Wright is a fellow with the Public Policy Forum and a former deputy minister to the premier and head of the public service in British Columbia. He has held senior executive positions in business, government and academia. For almost 50 years Canada has done a thoroughly crappy job – to use the technical term in economics – of fostering a labour market that would provide for steady, year-over-year increases in real pay for working Canadians. I calculate that in 1976 it would have taken a worker earning the median employment income six years to save enough for a down payment on a typical single-family home. In 2020 it would have taken 17 years. If that worker lived in Greater Toronto or Vancouver, it would have taken 28 and 30 years, respectively. Given this history, one might think that governments would welcome the prospect of a change in labour market dyna...

Experts warn tools that allow employers to monitor how their employees spend their time while working from home could backfire by eroding trust. Elise Amendola/The Associated Press Employers and work-from-home staff must tread a fine line between trust, monitoring and micromanaging, experts say, in the new age of remote employment. Their comments come days after British Columbia’s Civil Resolution Tribunal ordered an accountant to pay her former employer more than $2,600 after tracking software showed she engaged in “time theft” while working at home. The worker had gone to the tribunal claiming she was fired without cause. Sandra Robinson, an organizational psychologist and professor in the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, says that offering flexibility to ensure a happy workforce is a key reason employers continue with remote or hybrid work arrangements, long after pandemic restrictions have lifted. Yet Robinson warns some tools that allow employers ...

THE QUESTION I was recently laid off and got a good severance package from my company, equivalent to six months of salary. I was able to find another job pretty quickly, and I’m wondering what impact starting that new job would have on my potential severance payout. Do I have any legal rights to still collect my severance while starting a new job? THE FIRST ANSWER Rahul Soni , employment lawyer, Soni Law Firm, Toronto It depends. Often, severance package settlements are completely silent on your obligation to repay money based on income earned from your new job. If that’s your case, your new job will have no impact on your ability to collect your severance package. You will collect both your new job’s paycheques and your full severance package. This is your ideal situation. Other times, severance packages are structured so that your former employer can deduct, or claw back money you earn from your new job. This is done to prevent you from double-dipping. If this is your situation, th...