Below is our Month in Review for October, highlighting posts on our British Columbia Employer Advisor blog. You can follow the links to any of these specific posts, or you can visit the blog at www.bcemployerlaw.com

We would love to have your comments and suggestions for this Month in Review.

Murphy’s Laws of HR — Union Terminations
By Earl Phillips on October 31st, 2012

It’s time for another instalment in Murphy’s Laws of HR. The first two laws were posted some time ago. #3 is posted in sympathy for those dealing with unionized employees, and to remind those with only non-union employees to count their blessings. Murphy’s Laws of HR #3 – The union always grieves a termination: even when …

Privacy in Workplace Computers
By Earl Phillips on October 19th, 2012

The Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed employer rights to assert control over employee computer use, but with qualifications. Some employer-friendly principles are stated in today’s decision of R. v. Cole. They have to be untangled from the criminal law and Charter of Rights context and understood in light of the Court’s statement "I leave for …

Introducing Northern Workplaces, our New Client Newsletter
By Earl Phillips on October 16th, 2012

McCarthy Tétrault’s Labour & Employment Group has recently launched a newsletter destined for our U.S. clients and contacts entitled Northern Workplaces. Northern Workplaces is just one of the tools we are deploying to address labour and employment issues of interest to American-based clients and counterparts who deal with employment matters in Canada. Our first and …

Major New Union Coming — CEP Votes to Join with CAW
By Earl Phillips on October 15th, 2012

The Communication, Energy and Paperworkers Union voted today in favour of starting a new union with the Canadian Auto Workers. The CEP vote follows the CAW’s unanimous vote in August and completes a vital step toward creating a private sector union with over 300,000 members across Canada. In previous posts we have talked about the plans for the new union …

British Columbia’s New Limitation Act
By Christopher McHardy on October 10th, 2012

In an earlier post we notified you of BC’s new Limitation Act.  Further information from our litigation group can be found here.

Limitation Act
By Christopher McHardy on October 4th, 2012

The Government of British Columbia is introducing a new Limitation Act, setting out the time limit people have to file civil law suits in British Columbia.  On October 2, 2012, the Government announced that the new Limitation Act will come into effect on June 1, 2013. This is relevant for employers who may be subject to …

Hybrid Pension Plans Not the Best Answer — Time to Consider Target Benefit Plans
By Donovan Plomp on October 4th, 2012

One of the key elements of the new collective agreements recently reached by the Canadian Auto Workers with Ford, GM and Chrysler is a "hybrid" pension plan for new employees. It has both "defined benefit" (DB) and "defined contribution" (DC) components. This hybrid solution follows a similar arrangement between Air Canada and the CAW reached in September 2011 ...

Restrictive Covenants Part III: Enforcement
By Donovan Plomp on October 1st, 2012

In earlier posts, we discussed some considerations in drafting restrictive covenants.  Today we’ll talk about trying to enforce them. So your employee has left and you hear he is working for a competitor. He has a non-compete.  Your lawyer sends a cease and desist letter and gets a response from another lawyer. Perhaps the response will …