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Serious insight for serious situations.

Serious insight for serious situations.

Insights

Reflections and news direct from Rubin Thomlinson.
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Protections for unpaid interns not coming fast enough

This week, the CBC reported on a family in Alberta who is voicing concern over the lack of protection afforded to interns in Canada. Their story stems from the death of their son, Andy Ferguson, who crashed his car after falling asleep at the wheel. The Ferguson family believes Andy was exhausted from the long

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My fellow citizens of earth…

My colleague passed along a copy of this fantastic note which has a “citizen of earth” chasing off the parking police on behalf of a stranger, all in the interests of good karma. Last week, one of my partners wrote about a successful negotiation that she was involved in on behalf of one of her

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What makes a severance negotiation successful?

I recently concluded a severance negotiation for a client.  It went very smoothly and efficiently, with my employee client satisfied with the result.  He avoided wrongful dismissal litigation, and, after a lengthy employment relationship with his employer, he managed to leave on good terms.  Not every negotiation ends this way.  I don’t think that the

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Lessons learned from being involved in several of the 468 payroll audits that took place last year

I have, over the years, helped many employers with Ontario Employment Standards Act  (“ESA”) compliance related issues. I provided such assistance for some clients who were part of the 468  “random” payroll compliance audits that took place in 2011/ 2012 and for some clients who have been audited in 2013 and…I have lived to tell

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Mass terminations: What workplace parties need to know

In a volatile global economy, it is sometimes necessary for organizations to restructure their operations in order to remain competitive. Often, this “right-sizing” exercise involves the termination of groups of employees, or even entire departments or business units. Canada has been no stranger to job loss over the past five years and, indeed, talk of

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Investment banker dies after working “until 6am for three nights in a row”

There comes a time when both employers and employees need to be reminded of the limits to the employment relationship, and the physical limits to which one can push his or her body. In reading a news article published by The Daily Mail, I figured that now was the time for that reminder. The article’s

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Tweet, Tweet! – “A little bird told me”: Employee dismissed after twitter post comes to employer’s attention

In the latest incident of an employee’s social media activity landing him/herself in hot water with an employer, media outlets reported last week that a Toronto-area mechanic was fired after allegedly tweeting the following: “Any dealers in Vaughan wanna make a 20sac chop?  Come to Keele/ Langstaff Mr. Lube, need a spliff or two to

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So you’ve never hired an employment lawyer?

I’ve been speaking with quite a few entrepreneurs lately about employment law issues, and I’ve been surprised to learn how few of them have ever worked with an employment lawyer.  Their impression seems to be that, once you engage a lawyer, they come in, rack up thousands of dollars in legal fees and do not

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