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Lisa Stam

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Lisa Stam practices all aspects of employment, labour and human rights law, and has a particular interest in legal issues involving technology in the workplace and the various methods by which people continue to mess things up with technology.

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AI tools are quietly making their way into Canadian workplaces—helping with scheduling, hiring, performance management, and even discipline. But for unionized employers, using AI isn’t just a management decision. It’s a collective bargaining issue.

While only a small percentage of Canada’s workforce is unionized, these workplaces often lead the charge on new standards, so what happens here often sets the tone everywhere else.Continue Reading AI in the Unionized Workplace: What Employers Need to Know

December is complex.  A third of our statutory holidays are Christian-based, despite our diverse workforce in Canada. The holiday season can be a joyful time for many but it also raises questions about cultural inclusion in the workplace. 

For employers in Ontario, this includes understanding whether employees can swap statutory holidays like Christmas for religious or cultural holidays more meaningful to them.Continue Reading Swapping Christmas Stat Holidays: Human Rights & Cultural Inclusion in the Workplace

Using ChatGPT to Streamline Employee Terminations and Support Your HR Team

Handling an employee’s termination is always hard and involves a lot of moving parts. As a business owner, you’re likely juggling multiple responsibilities already, so managing terminations efficiently while staying compliant is crucial.

ChatGPT, as a generative AI tool, can help your HR team with many routine tasks while also assisting external legal counsel where needed. Here’s a breakdown of where ChatGPT can step in during each stage of the termination process.Continue Reading How ChatGPT Can Streamline Employee Terminations for Busy Business Owners

In Canada, firing someone means more than just showing them the door—you’ll probably also be holding it open, offering them severance, and making sure you’re nice about it to avoid bad faith damages.

For U.S. employers with a Canadian workforce, there are several key differences in employment law, especially when it comes to terminating employees. Continue Reading Guide for US Employers Terminating a Canadian Employee

Workplace investigations, especially those involving harassment allegations, require a clear and consistent process. Employers in Ontario must be diligent in their approach to ensure compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), maintain a safe work environment, and protect the rights of all parties involved.

A well-defined process is crucial for three main reasons: it ensures legal compliance, fosters trust among employees and reduces the risk of liability for the employer. Continue Reading The Importance of Process in Workplace Investigations

We have a short and sweet summer in Canada. Getting outdoors is a sacred rite for all, given how short our summer is. So how should employers balance that instinct with the fact that the business must go on?

Here are some best practices for the mixed bag of common summertime workplace law issues.Continue Reading Employment Law around the Campfire: Best Practices for Summer Workplace Law Issues

Our clients ask us this all the time. They’ve usually already thought about it for weeks/months/years, but never know if and when to do it. I’ve yet to meet an employer who loves terminating employees – it’s hard, painful, disruptive and most feel bad about it overall.Continue Reading When is it Time to Fire an Employee

Gen AI is here. This may feel very abstract and irrelevant to many of our employees but may be a significant source of stress and worry for others.

This is more than another department change that employees need to evolve with. In the same way that computers have transformed how we all do our jobs in less than a generation, AI is quickly taking us to that next level of processing information using everything computers have already brought us.Continue Reading Rolling out Gen AI in the Workplace

In the rapidly evolving landscape of tech, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is becoming a central player, especially in sectors like customer service, content creation, and human resources.

While GenAI offers groundbreaking efficiencies and capabilities (and excites the sci-fi nerds in all of us), it also poses unique challenges, particularly when it comes to biased outputs. This issue, often summarized by the old adage “garbage in, garbage out,” reflects the reality that AI systems can only be as unbiased as the data they are trained on.Continue Reading The Perils of Bias in Workplace GenAI