Employee or contractor?
The ContractorCheck Canada application (App) is a practical tool developed by the Norton Rose Fulbright employment and labour team. It is designed to help employers accurately determine the status of their workforces and whether they should be considered contractors or employees.
Defining employees versus contractors can be sometimes challenging; improperly classifying them
A recent Court of Appeal decision has confirmed that a disclosure which is in the private interest of the worker can still be considered to be in the ‘public interest’ and therefore fall within the whistleblower protection included in the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. However, it did confirm that any decision will depend on
The long awaited Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices was published on 11 July. The recommendations from the review throw some interesting questions into the mix. The general theme is the need for an adaptable, consistent and protected community in which employment and security of workers can prosper. It will be interesting to see how
The Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK (ICO) has updated its Subject Access Code of Practice (the Code) which deals with requests from individuals for personal information. The amendments are mainly to reflect the Court of Appeal’s decisions in the recent cases of Dawson-Damer and others v Taylor Wessing LLP [2017] EWCA Civ 74 and
In Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 113 v Toronto Transit Commission, 2017 ONSC 2078, Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 113 (ATU) unsuccessfully argued that the implementation of the random drug and alcohol testing of its members should be withheld until the conclusion of the main arbitration hearing addressing the validity of the
In a landmark decision, on 5 July 2017 a 5-member full bench of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has accepted the primary proposition of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) that the “unrestricted use of casual employment without the safeguard of a casual conversion clause may operate to undermine the fairness and relevance of the safety net”. Accordingly, the FWC has found that it is necessary for modern awards to contain a provision by which casual employees may elect to convert to full-time or part-time employment, subject to specified criteria and restrictions, to meet the modern awards’ objective of providing a fair and relevant minimum safety net.
Whilst this aspect of the FWC’s decision has caused concern amongst employer groups that it will lead to reduced flexibility for some employers in some industries, the FWC rejected potentially more restrictive aspects of the ACTU’s claims including that:
Summer is coming and temperatures are rising and may become unbearable, especially for these employees working outdoors / performing manual labour.
Too much warmth can affect employees and can cause exhaustion, headache, fainting, or dehydration. Therefore the impact on employees’ health can be significant.
From a French employment law perspective, employers have a very general
The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017 (Bill 148) includes a number of union-friendly changes to the certification process in Ontario. If implemented, the Bill 148 amendments could increase the number of union drives and successful applications for certification. None of the proposed changes affect the construction industry.
Currently under the Labour Relations Act, 1995