Workplace Law Task

Instructions:

• Please answer all of the questions in full sentences.  Do not reproduce the questions, but number your answers.  

1. Think about the situations and be thoughtful in your responses.  Make sure you answer each part of the question. Please refer to relevant statutes, citing appropriate sections, in your answers.  Cite statutes and cases correctly, using MLA format.  
2. This is an individual, not a group, assignment.  You should each do your own work.
3. To locate up to date statutes, please use Canlii: https://www.canlii.org/en/on.  The Ontario Human Rights Code can be found at: https://www.canlii.org/en/on/laws/stat/rso-1990-c-h19/latest/.  The Employment Standards Act, 2000 can be accessed at: https://www.canlii.org/en/on/laws/stat/so-2000-c-41/latest/
4. Your assignment must be typed in 12 point font. Proper citation, grammar, spelling, organization and clarity will be evaluated.
5. You must include a cover sheet, with the assignment title, professor’s name, course and section, your first and last name, student number and date.
6. A detailed rubric is included at the end of these instructions.
7. You must submit a hard copy in class, and upload your assignment to SafeAssign.   

Questions:

Your friends and family members have learned that you are taking a business law course, and have all come to ask your advice on how to handle their work-related problems.  Using what you have learned in MGS 350, and in particular what you have learned about workplace law, try to answer their questions.

1. Melanie was very excited to be offered a position as a receptionist for GlassWell. The HR manager called her and asked if she would accept the position for a salary of $40,000 plus benefits, with three weeks’ vacation.  She would start on Monday. She accepted immediately. When Melanie met the manager Monday, she was asked to sign an employment contract which stated that her salary was $39,000 and she would get two weeks’ vacation to start. Melanie is very upset and is looking for some advice.  Which is her employment contract? Explain.
2. Jerry was upset to learn that his employer would be ending his employment.  It wasn’t a surprise though, as the store really wasn’t doing a lot of business.  Jerry had been employed there for 5 years. His employer told him that his employment would end in 5 weeks’ time.  At the end of the 5 weeks Jerry was expecting to be paid his termination pay, but his employer told him nothing was owing to him.  Who is correct? Why?
3. Your step-uncle owns a small business that manufactures and sells insect protein bars to retailers.  He has just interviewed Cecil, and wants to hire him as a sales person. Cecil’s duties will include driving around the province to meet with potential and current customers, to sell the bars.  Cecil will use his own car and your step-uncle will reimburse him for gas and other travel-related expenses. Cecil will do his paperwork from home, only coming into the factory for meetings with your step-uncle.  He will be paid a base salary plus commission. Your step-uncle wants Cecil to work for him exclusively, so he can focus on building a market for the protein bars. Your step-uncle asks you how he should structure the arrangement with Cecil; he has heard that it might be cheaper for him to treat Cecil as an independent contractor, so he plans to include a clause in Cecil’s contract that states that he is an independent contractor. Explain to your step-uncle the difference between an independent contractor and an employee, in terms of his obligations.  Also, evaluate whether Cecil would be seen to be an independent contractor.
4. Your best friend Gina has been working as a hairdresser at Great Look Hair Salon for a year, and has developed a good relationship with many of the customers.  She has decided to start her own hairstyling business, but rather than operate out of a salon, she will come to her clients’ homes. She has just given notice of her resignation to Great Look.  She asks you about the following clause in her employment contract with Great Look:

“You agree that upon resignation or termination, not to solicit any of the Great Look’s customers on behalf of any hair salon or hair styling business for one year.”  

Does she need to be concerned? Can Gina tell the customers, whose hair she regularly styles, about her new business?

1. Your friend Ed is next.  He works as a security guard at a bank and he has an issue with his employer’s new policy. He has always worn the company uniform, but now the security company has a new policy that requires all security guards to wear a sailor’s cap.  They were never required to wear any headgear previously. Ed wears a turban for religious reasons and is not willing to remove it to wear the cap. He raised the issue with his boss, who told him that the company wants all employees to look professional and well-groomed and be immediately identifiable as security, and that if Ed did not wear the cap he would be fired.  Ed feels that he is being discriminated against. What can he do? Is the security company illegally discriminating against Ed? Refer to the appropriate sections of any relevant statute in your answer.
2. Kuffie is a really pretty blonde blue eyed woman.  Many of the women she works with do not like her very much. They feel that she is too pretty for real work and don’t realize that she works twice as hard as them.  Lately she’s noticed a number of things. Her coffee cup is never where she puts it at night, ready for the next day. Her lunches disappear and reappear magically after she has gone out to buy lunch.  They post pictures of her on the bulletin board which aren’t flattering ones. They tell the boss she’s late, when she isn’t. They make noises when she walks in and then don’t say a word to her. She is feeling very upset over this and is tired of this treatment.  Rufus, her boss, says to ignore them and they’ll soon stop. But this has been going on for two months now. She’s brought it up again, and Rufus still isn’t doing anything. What can Kuffie do? Explain her options.
3. Sally Smiley doesn’t always do the right thing.  But she smiles a lot and so a lot gets ignored. Her work is always late, but she smiles and so George, the boss, takes it.  She’s often late, but she smiles when she apologizes for being an hour late because it was so nice outside she couldn’t bear to leave the sunshine.  This has gone on for months. Everyone is really upset at the special treatment she seems to get from George. Last week a new boss arrived to replace George who had to go on a leave because he broke he back.  Sally’s work was 2 hours late, and so the team missed the deadline. Joe, the replacement boss wasn’t happy. Sally went up to him and smiled, but he said that was unacceptable and she better watch it because the next time she would be dismissed.  Sally was late the next day. She was smiling and explaining to Joe how she just had to watch the sun rise, but he would have none of it. He ended her employment right then and there. Sally is now suing. Who do you think has the better case? Sally or the company? Why? Explain.
4. Your cousin Joseph has a question about overtime.  He works as a restaurant server, and due to a staffing issue, has worked overtime for the last 6 weeks – 9 hours in the first week, 13 hours the next week, then 8 hours, then 15 hours, then 8 and then 15 again.  Joseph has been paid for 13 hours of overtime but he feels he is entitled to more. He thinks that since he regularly works 35 hours a week, he should be paid overtime for every additional hour that he worked. How is overtime pay calculated? How much overtime pay is Joe entitled to?
5. And then there is your uncle Fred.  He is a construction worker who is now disabled.  He fell 5 stories down when cleaning a balcony before repairing it.  He’d told his boss that he felt the cables were loose and wouldn’t hold his weight, but his boss insisted upon his going up anyway.  He really should have refused. Now he wants to find out what he should have done, and teach others so that others don’t have the same thing happen to them.  What did the statute say that he should have done? What obligations did the employer have? How could it have been avoided?
6. Finally, there is your next-door neighbour Alex. Alex’s workplace is currently in the midst of a union organization drive, and Alex supports the union. He tells you that his employer has been stopping by to chat with groups of workers, and has mentioned casually that if the workplace is unionized, his costs will increase so much that he may be forced to close Alex’s division.  Can the employer say this? What can Alex or the union do? What are the potential consequences?

RUBRIC:

Topic Marks