Canadian HR Reporter

pM40065782 Ro9496 February 9, 2015 INSIDE SPIKING STRESS LEVELS Canadian employers are planning to do more with less this year, which is leading to more stress leaves by employees CASL and BYOD Do employers need consent from employees? page 3 I don't like you How to manage someone you're not so keen on page 9 Mini interviews Hospital recruits for t with new system page 15 page 4 Credit: Dan Riedlhuber (Reuters) An employee works at Target's St. Albert, Alta., location on the day the retailer announced it would cease operations in Canada. The company has filed for creditor protection for its Canadian subsidiary in a move that will put 17,600 employees at 133 stores across the country out of work. Emplo y ment Law Today Canad a ian www.employmentlawtoday.com www.EmploymentLawToday.com Expert opinions from the best employment lawyers in Canada CELT1504-2015 ad.indd 1 2015-01-09 11:07 AM target bows out Is $70-million employee trust as generous as it sounds? By SaRaH doBSon WHeN the news broke, it was a shock — Target Canada an- nounced in January it was closing, putting 17,600 employees out of work. " e Target Canada team has worked tirelessly to improve the fundamentals, fi x operations and build a deeper relationship with our guests. We hoped that these eff orts in Canada would lead to a successful holiday season, but we did not see the required step- change in our holiday perfor- mance," said Brian Cornell, Target chairman and CEO. " ere is no doubt that the next several weeks will be diffi cult but we will make every eff ort to handle our exit in an appropriate and orderly way." at exit includes a minimum of 16 weeks' compensation to workers, apparently backed by a $70-million promise in the form of an employee trust. "What they've agreed to do is use this trust, which is funded by the U.S. company, to satisfy the vast majority, and hopefully all, of the severance and termination entitle- ments. So, from our perspective that's good," said Susan Philpott, a partner at Koskie Minsky in To- ronto, which is representing Target employees in the proceedings. e fund is also unusual in the context of an insolvency. "Usually… employees are often fi ghting with the other unsecured creditors for pennies on the dollar for their entitlements," she said. Since a lot of the Target work- ers are short-service employees, it is a reasonable amount. But it also does > pg. 2 Feds facing scrutiny over unpaid interns Government has used almost 1,000 unpaid interns since 2008 – but only 22 were hired on By LiZ BeRnieR tHe FederaL government is facing uncomfortable questions about its use of unpaid interns — and the miniscule proportion who went on to gain permanent employment afterwards. Federal departments have used a reported 961 unpaid interns since 2008, but only 22 of them were hired on after their intern- ship term, according to documents released after questions from NDP MP Laurin Liu. Liu, 24, said she had seen many of her fellow millennials jump from unpaid internship to un- paid internship. She introduced a private member's bill — Bill C-636 or the Intern Protec- tion Act — before Parliament in late 2014. But she wanted more information about how wide- spread the practice of hiring unpaid interns was within the government. "It came to my attention that there were many unpaid intern- ships being off ered in federal de- partments. So I decided to... get an idea of exactly how many unpaid internships are being used," said Liu, who represents the riding of Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, Que. e fact that these internships were so widespread — and so few were actually hired on — was star- tling, said Liu. "It's shocking, it's disappointing but unfortunately it means that these opportunities aren't actually benefi ting the intern. It means that these opportunities don't actu- ally lead to a permanent, full-time job," she said. " is is a story that we've been hearing increasingly from young workers... entry-level jobs are actually being replaced by unpaid internships without any promise or any job off er being of- fered down the road." Full picture still unclear Veterans Aff airs reported using the highest number of unpaid interns since 2008 — but that was based on data that was, from some departments, incomplete. "It was a very large document that we received from the gov- ernment as a response… each government department submit- ted their own data and some de- partments submitted incomplete information. It really varied from ActuAl > pg. 7 reversal of fortunes Alberta's labour market faces uncertainty as oil prices plummet By LiZ BeRnieR JuSt a FeW months ago, Alber- ta's natural resources sector was unquestionably the engine of Can- ada's economy — and the nucleus of job creation. Alberta led the na- tion with employment growth of three per cent in 2014, according to TD Economics. But since the dramatic decline in oil prices beginning in Novem- ber 2014, future job prospects in the province are much less certain. " e world essentially changed on us in the last few months, weeks because of this very important change in oil prices," said Pedro Antunes, executive director of economic outlook and analysis and deputy chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada in Ottawa. "We're now facing an oil price that for this year will probably be about 40 per cent lower than it was last year." It's very difficult to make predictions around oil prices because many different market factors are at work. But one thing is certain, said Antunes. "When you cut the revenue stream of oil producers in Canada and in Alberta by that much that quickly, it's going to have signifi - cant ramifi cations for the province and for the economy," he said. "Es- sentially, what happens is we've turned off the cash fl ow for a lot of these big producers." ere haven't been many vis- ible consequences as of yet but they are undoubtedly coming — ImpActs > pg. 8 target bows out target bows out Is $70-million employee trust Is $70-million employee trust $70-million promise in the form "What they've agreed to do is use this trust, which is funded by the U.S. company, to satisfy the vast majority, and hopefully all, of the severance and termination entitle- ments. So, from our perspective that's good," said Susan Philpott, a partner at Koskie Minsky in To- ronto, which is representing Target employees in the proceedings. e fund is also unusual in the context of an insolvency. "Usually… employees are often fi ghting with the other unsecured creditors for pennies on the dollar for their entitlements," she said. Since a lot of the Target work- ers are short-service employees, it

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