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[Music] [Music] and hello once again welcome to the Employment Law Show John Scoles Lee or Sam theory you'll want to reach out one eight five five eight to one 5900 employment lawyer say we'll get to the pocket employment lawyers a website I just threw it out there but we're gonna get to it because it's big and it's very important coming up on this show as well we will get to what you should never do if you're an employer on an earlier show we cover what you should never do if you're an employee we're going on the other side of the table now so stick around for that lots of stuff to get through some phone calls from our radio show by the way employment lawyer dot C if you want to find the place to catch our radio show where we take the calls from but that's all coming up in just a bit we start with the week that was Moll frere how are you I'm doing great good Johnny and it's great to be back here to talk about employment law and workplace rights and you know I I it's a privilege for me to be and to do my job with me not that that part of my job not that the rest of my job when I actually get to talk to people and help them and solve their problems and hopefully make them feel better about their rights in their situation that is a privilege and I'm so happy to be back here to do just that so we talked about your workplace rights your job what the law does to protect you and make sure that you have entitlements so we do that on this show but I do that not much more in my office every day so if you have questions about your specific situation if you want to know if your employer is allowed to do something that they did no worries no hesitation there's no bad questions call me email me we'll give you my contact information throughout the show but on this one actually is interesting I was taking the the via train very recently and someone stopped me there had the question I thought this would be a good situation for the week there was and what she was telling me in that she did recognize you Hollywood celebrity thank you she recognized me from the TV show said well I actually have a question you mind if I bother you sure no bother so here's the situation her employer recently instituted a new policy that says that if you have to call in sick to work then it's your job to find someone else to replace you you have to make some calls do your colleagues find someone in your job previous to that the policy was well if you need to call in sick call your boss call management and they'll take care of it so that was fine except very recently what happened to her she was sick she started making some calls and looking for someone to replace her either she couldn't get a hold of people or the people she got a hold up said no no we're not available to cover for you so what did she do she called her boss I said I tried there's no one available so I'm telling you I'm sick I can't come in fine she goes in the shift after that a couple days later gets called into a meeting we're letting you go you didn't do what you were supposed to you left us in a jam you didn't show up to work so we're letting you go for cause so on the train she's talking to me she's asking me is this legal could they have done that could they have let me go so John the answer is an absolute no they could not have let her go why because she didn't do anything wrong now what's the purpose of discipline the purpose of discipline is to stop behavior that the company finds to be inappropriate or offensive but what's the offensive behavior being sick being sick is not a workplace offense and she can't help what other people do the fact that she tried to get a hold of people she did what she was supposed to the fact that they were not available is not her fault so there's nothing that she actually did wrong here so even though the company may be in a jam it's part of running a business you will have employees that are sometimes sick that cannot make it to work you can't punish them for that now she did do what you're supposed to they're allowed to have a policy saying you have to try to find someone but if you can't find someone that doesn't mean you get disciplined you shouldn't be going to work when you're sick for everyone's sake yours and others so if your and let go because you couldn't find someone or even discipline because you couldn't find someone to work to cover for you when you were sick that is a wrongful dismissal for this particular person the ancestor is being old close to a year space she was there for ten years so John III I think it's an important thing for employers to to understand it's okay to have a policy saying find someone but understand that if the employee tries and cannot find someone to replace them you cannot punish them in any way so the employer would just have to suck it up there's nothing they can do about it it's the part of the cost of running a business it's part of the process of running a business you sometimes may have to be short-staffed or find someone yourself or if you're the boss work yourself it's the way that it is and you cannot punish someone if they're legitimately sick if they legitimately cannot work ask for a doctor's note if you have a question or a death but you cannot punish anyone in that situation reaching out for you is simple one eighty five five eight two one fifty nine hundred employment lawyer dot C as mentioned off the top that is where you go to find a radio station where you can catch our show but doing that for about eight years on radio telephone calls first call for the day is right now I have been working for the same employer for the last 26 years without a contract recently my employer has decided to pass the business on to his son in the meantime he has handed me a contract which he is telling me I need to sign at this point because the preexisting company name which he now changed is no longer in effect and therefore I am not entitled to a severance so I have already decided I'm not signing that contract and in the meantime they have started to make my life difficult making my job difficult excluding me from different things do not sign do not so that's a very smart person that she knew better than to sign so let's me let's make it very clear okay if you're working out of a job and whatever the reason may be there's a new boss coming in maybe there's a sale maybe something else happens and and your boss all of a sudden says we want you to sign a new agreement no big deal just sign it do not do so do not sign it I can almost guarantee you that that agreement is gonna contain terms new terms that are unfavorable to you for example terms that limit your severance terms that allow the company to change your job to change your compensation don't sign it the company can't make you and you can't be penalized for refusing to sign and can you imagine John signing an employment agreement like that and realizing a few months later when maybe they let you go that because you signed it now you lost a hundred thousand dollars in severance that you otherwise would have received what a terrible situation so for this person they can't punish her for not signing they can't fire her as a consequence of not signing and then in the sense that that's not cause and if they are making her life miserable because she didn't sign that could be a constructive dismissal she's being mistreated harassed bullied what-have-you she may be able to force the situation and leave with compensation so the question then becomes what would she be owed right whether decided to just let her go or maybe she forces a constructive dismissal so let's plug her information into Pocket employment lawyer dot CA and let's see what she's owned so we can see on the screen right now she's a let's say she's a supervisor twenty years of service 26 years of service we know that she would be owed anywhere from 22 to 24 months pay you can see that on the screen it's as easy to do that as I just as it is for me to read it pocket employment lawyer dossier and depending on our compensation we could probably be imagine that's a six-figure amount that she's owed you know 24 months pay so that's what's at stake for her and for you at home if your employer asks you to sign a new employment agreement don't do so if you're not sure whether you should if you're not sure what it says what it means call me let me take a look at it I can review it and tell you exactly and if you give the OK after looking it over do they not have to provide her with some sort of compensation for signing it yeah if you're gonna sign a new employment agreement for that agreement to actually be valid and enforceable you have to get something in return for signing it you can't just your signature on a piece of paper doesn't make it legal so a bonus signing bonus extra pay extra vacation something that you wouldn't have otherwise received so again you're not sure what that means you're not sure what you should get whether you should sign does it affect you call me again help an employment lawyer dot C is the email but you just glanced over I want to get into a deeper pocket employment lawyer dossier so pocket employment lawyer dossier we talked about it's a tool that I created to allow people to get an assessment of their legal rights when it comes to workplace law workplace right so pocket employment lawyer dot C once you go there you're gonna see some categories that it can help you with it can determine the amount of severance that you're owed easiest place to go to if you lost your job if you want to know how much he wrote even if you're just curious you go to pocket employment lawyer dossier but beyond that if you want to know if you've been constructively dismissed if you want to know if you're really an employee or an independent contractor by the way you're not an employee you're not an independent contractor you are an employee if you want to know if you're a victim of harassment or of human rights violations that and more you can go to pocket employment lawyer CA it's free it's anonymous it's easy to use it takes seconds it's like having your mini Li or God help you in your pocket with you at all-time pocket employment lawyer dot CA we'd like to say well taken out for spin I want to read this email and you can use the pocket employment lawyer in that regard Karen writes in says I was recently terminated for cause after arriving late for work in the eighteen months I worked there I was never laid before and didn't have any issues on my record clean my employer said that I am NOT entitled to any notice or severance pay or even AI this is the boss saying this did he have a right to fire well you know let's start with the idea that yeah if you're late obviously you're doing something wrong you have an obligation to come into work on time but the fact that you were late the fact that you did do something wrong does not mean not at all you could just be fired that certainly not be fired for cause because the termination for cause it's reserved for the worst offenders now if you're always late and they've warned you and they've given you opportunity after opportunity and you still are keep running late well what more can they do okay maybe then they can terminate your employment but that is extreme if she's late she says one time in 18 months nonsense of course they cannot legally let her go for cause that's not cause which means if they do let her go they are severance for severance and it could be a few months pay but we've been talking about pocket employment lawyers' a so one of the ways she could have gone or one of the places she could have gone to find that if there's actually cause if being late is cause his pocket employment lawyers' a so let's see how that looks on the screen right now so she would have inputted the number of years the type of misconduct that's alleged and the fact that it hadn't happened before that she wasn't disciplined before and we can see the result at the bottom of the page it says since you have not been disciplined over the previous two years and given that the allegations are not that serious this is probably not a cause for termination meaning severance may be owed right so that's as simple as that this pocket employment lawyer dot say Justice Esther is not being terminated for cause that she is old compensation that's how easy it is to use we'll take a short break coming up what you should never do if you're an employer don't miss that one eighty five five eight two one fifty nine see lots more coming up for the Employment Law show stick around you lost your job they only gave you two weeks of severance per year worked but where can you find out what you're really owed I'm going to severance pay calculator comm find out how much your road right now severance pay calculator calm you've been denied long term disability you think you're powerless but you have a lot more power than you think I'll tell you a secret it's a numbers game for the insurance company they're betting on you walking away from money that they owe you don't make that mistake we resolve disability claims all the time we force insurance to pay what they owe we're in your corner call Savannah and his team one eighty five five eight to one fifty nine hundred or go to Disability Rights dot CA you lost your job they said they had a good reason but you think you've been wrongfully dismissed now what are you going to do I'm going to employment lawyer dot CA always check with the employment lawyer first at employment lawyer dot CA [Music] and welcome back the Employment Law Show John Scoles the or Sam fear our topic for today no we want to get into this one if you're an employer you should never dot dot dot right so employers often give me a hard time and they say well you you're telling us about all these mistakes that we're making and you're telling us about all these entitlements that employees have well help us out help us avoid making these mistakes so that's what we're gonna do today we're gonna talk about a few mistakes that employers make that they should not make because if they do that's when they get in trouble that's when they own employees compensation that's when they break the law so this is important for employers but employees as well because if you have an employer that's doing those things you'll know now wait a second they're not allowed to do that and here's what to do about it first one is a big one that could cost you that is assume that there's only one or two weeks per year severance probably the best place to start that and employers just like employees do assume oh no if I let someone go I gotta pay them a week's pay per year or two weeks pay per year and they let them go and thinking that's all they owe so here's your week's pay per year and then they get a letter from someone like me saying no no you actually owe them 18 months pay ouch is right what's because they didn't get the right information there is no such rule of a week per year or two weeks per year unless an employee sign an employment agreement that limited their entitlements and many have not so if you don't know what your what your oh the employee for you assume it's a week per year two weeks but you're actually wrongfully dismissing the employee you may have the best of intentions you may want to be the best most fair employers but you could still be in breach of the law you could still be wrongfully dismissing the employee not knowing any better so get advice call me go to pocket employment lawyer dossier speak to another lawyer if you don't want to speak to me that's fine but it's not a week's pay per year of service if you want to do this right if you don't want to be on the wrong end of a wrongful dismissal claim enforce our ensure that you know your obligations ensure that you provide the employee with what they're actually owed talking about the things you should not do as an employer number two is this ignore allegations of bullying or workplace harassment really topple in life is and despite it being so topical a lot of employers still don't know how to properly deal with workplace harassment the workplace bullying so let's make sure that we understand the first thing what you don't do it you just read that is you don't nor th se allegations if someone brings us forward an allegation of workplace harassment you have to take it seriously you have to investigate that may either mean you conduct the investigation or better yet bringing in an outside investigator to do the investigation to figure out what actually happened to talk to the person that's complaining talk to the other employees get people's perspective get as much information as possible and if it's determined that there was harassment you have to take measures to fix that problem maybe you have to discipline someone or provide additional training have better policies perhaps let someone go but bottom line is you have to take these allegations seriously investigate them don't allow your work environment to become poison if you do that you could be in breach of the Employment Standards Act you can be a breach of the Occupational Health and Safety Act of the Human Rights Code you name it and more bad idea to ignore these things it's illegal and if you're an employee and your employer is not properly dealing with workplace harassment they're in breach of their law you got to give me a call that days of you know boys will be boys and they in the rumor are gone right it really is and the type of behavior behavior that may have been accepted 20 30 years ago is no longer acceptable now you have an obligation to ensure that employees are protected that the work environment is healthy and supportive it's an active obligation an employer cannot ignore that okay employers don't do this either fire an employee while they're on either a medical leave or a maternity paternally right it's it's illegal it's a violation of the Human Rights Code to let someone go because they're sick certainly because they're pregnant or because they're a parent taking a parental leave that is illegal you cannot do that even if you think that they're not a good employee unless you can show that this had nothing to do with the medical condition or it had nothing to do with the the parental leave that is a huge huge problem my best advice for employer if you have an employee on a medical leave let them stay on a leave assess their of your ability to take them back when that leave is over same thing with parental leave don't let them go don't be too proactive don't say well I know now that six months from now when you come back I'm not gonna have a job for me for you well how would you know that in six months things may change don't be too proactive assess your ability to take them back then remember the the duty to accommodate and if you do let someone go because your honor leave that is a human rights violation it's certainly gonna cost you this whole list is for employers if you're an employer these are the things you should not be doing this one we've done complete shows and that is misclassified employees as independent contractors let's face it it's much easier for a company to have independent contractors you don't have to remit taxes for them you don't have to worry about silly things like minimum wage and employment standards and vacation and overtime so yeah let's just have them as an independent contractor well not so fast the law doesn't work that way if someone is in the eyes of the law and employee that they have to be treated like an employee and people are misclassified people believe that because they signed a contract that says I'm an independent contractor that makes them and an independent contractor and for the company here's the problem if you've misclassified the employee well you may then be liable for back wages for overtime and vacation pay and and overtime pay that could be huge liability you may owe people severance even anticipate that could a company so it's not a good idea to do that not to mention whether we can get into trouble with CRA so if someone's gonna work for you regular hours full time or even if it's part-time but its regular and it's consistent they're probably an employee they should be treated like an employee and if you don't do that there's gonna be consequences and for you out there if you're working but you're really on paper and independent contractor remember you may have rights and that's especially important if you're let go because then you should be getting your severance like an employee would that happens you know what to do you reach out to me there was that simple nobody would hire anybody nobody your firm would be an employee exactly what why would anyone be you know we have people working here in the studio why would they be hired as employees they should all be independent contractors it doesn't work that way the law determines whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor I mean the individual doesn't decide that the company doesn't decide that a piece of paper doesn't decide that the law looks at all factors to determine who really is an independent contract to do if you're an employee last one we'll wrap it up for today is this a terminated employee for cause if you have not built up that case and we've touched on this earlier in the show but how difficult it is to terminate someone for cause and employers often equate the idea of employee doing something wrong with a termination for causing the fact that an employee that something wrong is not enough if you're an employer the way you could potentially terminate someone for cause is building up a case engaging in discipline giving them warnings giving them opportunity to improve and documenting that once you've done that and the employee still is doing whatever it is that they're doing maybe then you can contemplate a termination for cause it's difficult to do and it's not one of those things where you can just jump steps in the queue build up your case and then maybe you can terminate for cause otherwise even if the employee did something wrong you may owe them significant compensation and of course for employees remember if you have been let go supposedly for cars I've been doing this for a very long time and in my experience and my experience in most of those cases when you are let go for cause you really in the eyes of the law it's not cause it's still a without cause termination and severance has to be paid we keep telling you to reach out it's simple one eighty five five eight to one fifty nine hundred helped at employment lawyer dot CA an employment lawyer dot CA the website to find the radio shows you can listen to past shows as well you can download them will get the phone call number two from the radio next my wife has worked for a large retailer for four years full time they closed the location they're gonna reopen it again at a different location in a year they all got permanent layoffs they were forced to sign a letter that night when they were told basically saying they'll be getting no severance at all so I'll just be her final pay and then the vacation pay permanent layoff well that's a terminate you know you can call permanent I don't know how could it be more of a termination than that you're permanently not working for us anymore all right that's a termination and you know I take a step back here I've often heard from people that say well I had no choice but to sign what does that mean you have no choice but to somewhere with someone threatening you with the baseball bat where were they threatening to to harm you or your family you always have a choice to enforce and at least inform yourself about your legal rights but that aside okay if you've been permanently laid off as this person of course your own compensation your own severance it doesn't matter what the company believes it doesn't matter frankly would you believe the law makes that determination so we know this person has been let go we know they're owed severance question is how much severance I can tell you easily but let's go back to our friend the pocket employment lawyer dot see a website let's plug this person's information in and see how much he'd actually be owed so let's say she's in the customer service role we can see that on the screen and we know she's there for four years of service she hasn't been paid anything because her employer says we're not paying you I can't imagine why well the pocket employment lawyer dot CA website correctly assesses her as being about six months pay depending on what she earns that could easily be tens of thousands of dollars six months pay that's how easy it is to go to pocket employment lawyer dossier whether you've been laid off terminated restructured discontinued whatever the term is if you lost your job pocket employment lawyer dot CA we'll take a short break if you'd be bullied at work and ignored by HR we will attack a lot after we come back one eighty five five eight two one fifty nine hundred and the employment lawyers Aesop when the law shall stick around we'll come right back you were being harassed and when you said something about it you're the one who lost your job now what are you gonna do I'm going to employment lawyer CA always check with the employment lawyer first at employment lawyer dot CA insurance companies deny long term disability claims all the time they give lots of excuses don't give up I've seen it all they've ignored your doctors they've ignored you you're angry and you're frustrated but there's hope we resolve disability claims all the time we force insurers to pay what they owe we're in your corner call Savannah and his team one eight five five eight two one fifty nine hundred or go to Disability Rights dot CA hi you had a secure job you didn't see it coming now what do you do I'm going to employment lawyer CA always check with the employment lawyer first at employment lawyer dot CA [Music] and welcome back employment laws show you want to go to employment lawyer dot say to find a radio station where you can listen to the show past shows as well and currently we'd love to have you tune in and make some phone calls as well ask some questions we play those calls back on here and phone call number what three for today is right now I've been working in a workplace and I've been bullied for about four years now this employees along to employees been there for about twenty-five years gives a long history of bullying bamps HR has a huge file on them but they won't do nothing about it files no good if it doesn't come active and what you know what what did I just talk about in terms of things that employees should not do and I said you should not ignore workplace harassment workplace bullying and it seems like that's what the company's doing here there's harassment allegations being brought forward and the company's not properly dealing with that well that's a that's a huge problem it's a huge problem because it creates a poison work environment it makes difficult for the person to continue working I've seen many situations where as a result the person ends up going on a medical leave you know depression anxiety whatever it is and and that's not good for the person it's not good for the workplace all the company has to do is take it seriously investigate and take measures to deal with it so you know better now if you that happens to you if your employer won't deal with the workplace harassment issue come see me by the way you can also go to pocket employment lawyer dot CA if you're not sure whether your matter qualifies is workplace harassment if it rises to the level of workplace harassment pocket employment lawyer dot say can assess that as well but workplace harassment not accept the book to deal with that employers you have to the law makes it very clear and this this person's got a history of virtue certainly it's not the first time they've done this right like get on it one of the things she may be able to do if her employer is not gonna deal with that they say well enough is enough now I'm gonna treat this as a constructive dismissal I'm gonna leave and require the company to pay me severance because they're making it difficult for me to continue working so that's an option that's available to employees that are being mistreated where the company is not fixing the problems that ignoring them they're not doing enough you may be able to leave your employer but still require them to pay your full compensation that's it I don't want anyone quitting me without speaking to me first but that's definitely an option option for you to reach out is termination questions calm it's simply you go there you can ask your questions they will be answered by other Li or a member of its team that's a drop-down menu to search past questions as well pretty robust so you want to get in there and ask your questions it will be maybe brought on this show and we'll talk about it like like Cal Cal says again through termination questions comm says can I ask my employer for time off work to observe religious holidays yeah and that's a common question that I get and you know different people have different religious beliefs follow different religious traditions and if it's a legitimate religious belief and a religious requirement then yes you are able to ask your employer for accommodation the Human Rights Code requires the company to accommodate for religious reasons so maybe your observed the Sabbath or maybe there's a holiday that requires you to leave early because you're fasting or what have you that's okay the company has to provide accommodation now employers often say well how do we know if it's legitimate how do we know if they're really following it or maybe it's just well we want to go home early to watch the football game but we're not following the religion well if there's questions about that and I wouldn't you know utilize this too much but if there's legitimate questions you can ask the person to bring something from the religious person that they you follow minister a rabbi and confirm that they're in fact part of that belief and that there's a requirement to do these things so that's especially true if you're dealing with maybe a religion you're not as familiar with and you're not sure is there really a requirement that they leave early on Friday for example you can ask for a rabbi and minister whoever the right person is for their confirmation of that I wouldn't do that for everything you know if you know you have a a Jewish employee and they want to observe the Sabbath it would probably be overkill to say well I want something from a rabbi but in some situations it is okay to ask for corroboration but ultimately an employer does have to accommodate their employees religious beliefs even if it's not the easiest thing to do is there a limitation to it or just I will as much as they need there really isn't any limitation now there's a line that an employer does not have to cross if it becomes too difficult if it's like if it's gonna be so destructive and so costly to the workplace employer may not have to go that far but the fact that it is difficult and there is some disruption that's not enough for the company to say no no we don't want to do that we call this accommodation to the point of undue hardship so even if it is hard the company still has to do it and by the way that doesn't just apply to religious accommodation oftentimes we see that in the context of the disability maybe someone has a medical condition that requires modified duties or modified hours the company has to provide that accommodation the company if the company says no to that that could be a human rights violation so if that happens you know what to do you can buy they also go to pocket employment lawyer dots the eight to find out more about that or just give me a call lots of good stuff there thanks Kyle once again termination questions comm is where Cal went you can use that as well or email help an employment lawyer dot CA or simply employment lawyer dot CA is the website to catch the radio show and listen back to old shows and we've talked about it several times we've used it three or four times pocket employment lawyer CA is also a fantastic resource completely anonymous and there's a contact button sorry at the top right on that side we'll never use it one eighty five five eight two one fifty nine hundred to reach out as well we will catch you next time for the employment law show thank you [Music] closed ca tioning of this program is brought to you in part by severance pay calculator comm find out how much you are owed right now severance pay calculator comm why you had a secure job you didn't see it coming now what do you do I'm going to employment lawyer dot CA always check with the employment lawyer first at employment lawyer CA