Tagged: discrimination

Employment / Litigation

Damages: Making Anti-Harassment Policies Work in the United States

Harassment has been in the news a lot lately in the United States, with several high-profile terminations at well-known companies. Companies are losing millions of dollars, not just in settlements and verdicts, but in lost customers and bad publicity. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, is the administrative agency responsible for enforcing laws prohibiting workplace harassment in the United States. The EEOC has issued new guidance suggesting that conventional anti-harassment training isn’t enough. So what is an employer to do? Maintaining an effective harassment reporting procedure is simple, but not always easy. Often, it means a willingness by the company to put its money where its mouth is. This involves taking the...

Employment

Damages: The Dark Side of Having Employees in the United States

Canadian employment law is, in many ways, far more employee favorable than U.S. employment law. With the exception of a few states, employment in the United States is “at-will.” This generally means that either the employer or the employee may terminate the employment relationship without cause and without notice, so long as the reason for the termination is not discriminatory (e.g., based on age, race or gender) or retaliatory (e.g., in retaliation for the employee engaging in whistleblowing activity). U.S. employees also have far fewer privacy rights in the workplace. Employees generally have no expectation of privacy in any computers or other electronic devices provided by the employer. However, there is one aspect of employment...