Six Reasons to Hire an Employment Lawyer
When to hire an employment lawyer
Whether you are an employer or an employee, you have a responsibility to understand some basic concepts related to the labour laws in Canada. Your failure to do so could lead you to inadvertently violate the law as an employer or miss out on opportunities due to you as an employee. This article goes into a very common question often asked by recently terminated employee’s, employees in doubt regarding employment conditions and employers seeking answers as too when is it time to hire and an employment Lawyer?
When doubts arise, your best recourse is to immediately contact an employment lawyer. More specifically, you might want to contact a labour lawyer from your province. Yes, an employment lawyer in Montreal would be ideal if you are employed in the Montreal region. That would help ensure you get guidance that is most applicable to your circumstances.
In the sections below, we want to help you focus on when to hire an employment attorney to protect you or your company’s rights.
1. How can an employment lawyer help with: Employer Harassment Issues?
The law does not permit your employer to harass (verbal abuse, mental psychological abuse) you in any way, shape, or form. If you don’t report harassment issues within the guidelines as set forth by the law, you run the risk of denying yourself your rights.
If you feel your employer is harassing you over performance issues or without cause, you would be well within your rights to contact an attorney. Your attorney could then advise you on how to protect yourself during further interactions with your employer. They would also likely advise you not to retaliate in any way. Should the situation lead you to want to resign, your attorney would be there to make sure your resignation is handled properly as to not compromise your rights to any due compensation or benefits.
2. Wrongful Termination Issues
The law is very clear about the fact your employer has to have cause to terminate you unless an employment contract says otherwise. Excluded from wrongful termination laws would be layoffs necessitated by workload issues or economic concerns. Otherwise, the law dictates that employer must handle terminations by the book.
If you feel your termination was handled in violation of the law, you will want to immediately contact a local labour attorney. It would be your lawyer’s responsibility to review your circumstances and decide whether or not your employer violated the law and whether or not your severance or final compensation was handled appropriately.
3. Employment Contract Negotiations and Violations
If you are considering an employment opportunity as a high-level executive, there is a good chance your employer would want you to sign an employment contract. This would be a good time to hire labour law experts who could look after your interests during the negotiation process. An unbiased representative with knowledge of the law would be the best way for you to get all that you can during negotiations.
Once your employment contract is in place, both you are your employer are expected to abide by the terms of the contract. If you feel your employer is violating the terms of the contract, you need to immediately contact an attorney for possible corrective action. Preferably, you would want to consult with the same attorney who might have helped you negotiate that applicable contract.
4. Sexual Harassment Issues
Everyone within every organization is expected to fully refrain from anything that could even remotely be considered sexual harassment. As labour lawyers, we have represented both employees who felt they were sexually harassed and employers who needed advice on how to deal with sexual harassment situations.
This is a real hot button in terms of making sure everyone in the workplace feels respected and safe. Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on, you need to get an attorney to help guide you through any applicable sexual harassment issue.
If you are an employer or the representative for an employer, you are required by law to take reasonable measures to prevent all forms of sexual harassment. A good employment lawyer can help you create policies and procedures for your company related to the prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace.
5. Whistleblower Protection Issues
To make employees feel safe to report possible health or criminal violations by their employer, there are whistleblower laws in place to provide would-be whistleblowers with certain protections.
If you are contemplating going forward to authorities with information about potential violations by your employer, you could benefit from speaking to an attorney before filing your complaints. If you make said complaints and feel your employer might or is retaliating, you need to contact a labour lawyer immediately.
6. Collective Bargaining Issues
As an employer in an industry where unions have great influence, you most likely will have to engage in collective bargaining agreements with said union or unions. That poses you two problems.
First, collective bargaining negotiations can take up a lot of your time. A good employment lawyer should be able to handle most of the negotiations until it’s time to fine-tune the final agreement. Second, negotiations can get heated due to opposing sides trying to nail down the best agreement possible for their side. In such cases, lawyers can serve as mediators to help bring opposing sides together.
NOTE: This article does not constitute legal advice from or legal opinion. It is only used to inform readers about certain aspects of labour law.
