Photo of Lisa Stam

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.

Photo Credit - Anne de Haas
Photo Credit – Anne de Haas

Discrimination on the grounds of “family status” continues to be a hot topic for Canadian employers. Are employers required to accommodate an employee’s eldercare obligations? Are these sorts of obligations different than an employee’s childcare obligations?  Where is the line between personal preference to help

As of the date of this posting, there are only 38 more sleeps until December 25 (according to my kids’ countdown app).  This means only 5 more weekends (6 if you count December 24 as a perfectly noble shopping day) and likely several parties before the end of the year.  Cue the annual articles on

The minimum wage that every Ontario employer must pay their employees has gone up from $11.25 to $11.40 per hour, effective October 1, 2016.  The Ontario Employment Standards Act sets out further details for specific categories of employees, such as students, liquor servers, hunting and fishing guides, and homeworkers.

For those workplaces that employ

I had a client recently ask why he would bother going through the cost and efforts of doing up an employment contract, if he was going to have to fight with ex-employees’ lawyers and pay out a package in a without cause situation anyway.  Good question.

Without Cause Termination Entitlements

It remains very difficult to

Because of the recent controversy surrounding unpaid interns, we have been getting many calls from concerned employers about their obligation when working with interns and employers’ rights when interns do not work out.

Pay

As a general rule, unpaid internships are not permitted in Ontario. There are a few exceptions, the most common of which

shoesMicrosoft Corp. and LinkedIn recently announced that Microsoft will soon acquire LinkedIn in a transaction valued at $26.2 billion – click here for the company’s announcement.

Under the deal, Microsoft will purchase LinkedIn’s shares at $196 each. If a share sale like this happened in Ontario, the identity of LinkedIn would not change – Microsoft would simply step in to the shoes of LinkedIn. Microsoft would inherit all employees and employment-related liabilities and obligations of LinkedIn after the deal closed.Continue Reading Microsoft Acquiring LinkedIn: What is the Employee Impact in a Share Transaction?