Seneca College. Legal Risk Management. Emily Chen B.Com Human Resources Strategy and Technology

Transcription

1 Seneca College Legal Risk Management Emily Chen B.Com Human Resources Strategy and Technology

2 In chapter three Managing Legal Risk, I have learned importance of having Legal Risk Management Plan (LRM) in a business. It prevents business from making less mistakes in a numbers of aspects such as the expense of legal services, and damage claims, distracting time and effort, relationships and reputation in the industry, etc. This report is focus on the first step in LRM- spotting potential legal liability issues asked by General Counsel and solutions to limit occurrence of these legal risk. I have used observing, interviewing, examining techniques to identified potential legal risks in various business function areas at the Seneca College. In additional, I have incorporated the concepts from the textbook to provide solutions. Human Resources LR1: False statement of fact, or opinion that harm another s reputation Seneca employer writes or verbally reference for ex-employee that contains defamatory statement. It harms the ex-employee s reputation and blocks the exemployee s employment opportunity. This situation could be avoided. The HR should set limitation on only certain information can be provided to reference checker. The information can be obtained from HR such as date of employment, length of the services, the employee name, position, and duties and responsibilities of the job. Avoid answering questions that are sensitive and impact on the employee s employment opportunity. This would eliminate the risk that the employee files a suit against the HR. LR2: Discriminate visible minorities Intentionally and (or) unintentionally discriminate visible minorities who seek for employment at Seneca. The discriminative interview questions such as religion, origins, 1

3 personal orientation etc. could ask by recruiters. Human Resource manager is required to create Equal Opportunity for All policy. HR manager has to ensure this policy is implemented in place, and it is enforceable. LR3: Terminate employment The HR may terminate the employee without legal documentation proof. This will give the employee chance to sue the HR for wrongful dismissal. The documentation include record of employment, performance appraisal report, warning letters, etc. Every employment document has to proper documented and kept in the file. Performance appraisal reports, oral and written warning have to documented either electronically or manually. When to terminate an employee, have a witness is at the event, all documents are prepared to save time and prevent unnecessary disputes. LR4: Employment contracts The employer and the employee enter into a new employment contract. The legal risk that the Seneca may face is failed to imply a term in order to give effect to the employee s attention although a term is not included in the contract. The new or renew employment contract should deal carefully each time to ensure relationship is re-established based on the new contract rather depend on the previous contract. Although a term may not be included in the employment contract, the employer has to draw the employee s attention that such term is enforceable in the contract. LR5: Vicarious liability and hiring negligent- Invalid or expired driver license The Seneca shutter bus driver holds invalid or expired driver license to continue driving the bus. An unexpected accident could happen on the road cause injuries and (or) 2

4 death. The bus driver would face serious charges. The bus drive is primarily liable for his or her personal wrongdoing. However, the Seneca college also vicarious liable for the accident committed by the bus driver. HR is responsible to hire the best-suited person for the job can reduce the employer vicarious liability. Ensure HR updates the most current date of the employee records periodically. These record include copy of valid driver license, driving records, first-aids training, emergency training, etc. to limit the Seneca liabilities as much as possible to reduce bad reputation in the public and compensations. Student Services LR6: Neligent misstatement From interviewing the numbers of students who approached to Admission Services, the majority of students complained the employees were unpleasant and showed unwelcome attitude towards students. The employees misstated answers lead students believe into he or she is not qualify into the program that cause student delay in education. Supervisor is responsible to document performance appraisal accurately and fairly. Therefore, HR will eliminate unqualified employees and ensure that front line employees have the ability to demonstrate the level of knowledge to perform the basic tasks. Such reading transcript task and providing accurate information task shouldn t be happen and mislead students to believe the situation is finalized. LR7: Negligence and the service of alcohol At the Sene Centre, there is a bar opens occasionally to serve alcohol to students. The server owes duty of care to drunk students prevent them from injuries. The same law 3

5 applies to the situation where the employer invites the employees to a party, the employer has legal obligation to safeguard that the drunk employees. The Seneca can take reactive approach by encouraging the employees to take taxi home instead of driving home. HR should obtain Smart Serve from the servers who perform the duty. Finance and Administration LR8: The tort of breach of privacy The employees invade others privacy through confidential information records. Such as family income, grades, social insurance number, credit cards, etc. The employees may obtain and use other employees and students personal information without consent the person. Under Personal Information Protection and Electronic Document Act (PIPEDA), the only consented person has right to obtain limited information and use the information for specific purpose at the workplace. Personal information must be protected in each department. Implement a secure database to limit certain personal information that are not necessary to obtain to use. Ensure consent form or agreement is placed in the application prior when needed. LR9: Damage or lost a vehicle at the Seneca parking lot Vehicle damage or lost would cause Seneca to compensate the plaintiff as the plaintiff has paid the parking ticket. Seneca is obligate to show duty of care in protecting the vehicle as safe as reasonable in the Seneca parking lot, and avoiding carelessness that cause harm to others. Increase a number of security guards and advance technology equipment are 4

6 needed to prevent this event happen. Surveillance should be visible in every corner of the parking lot in case of suspicious incurred. The security logs should proper documented in place in case of investigation. Therefore, lost or damage vehicle can be compensated through the defendant rather than the Seneca itself. LR10: Negligence-slip and fall Students and the employees carelessly slip and fall at the Seneca property area that cause injuries. The Seneca owes reasonable duty of care to reduce the risk. The Seneca should hire a professional experienced health and safety officer. The health and safety officer will be the expert in preventing this event happen. The janitors must be trained and cooperated with the health and safety officer to eliminate this risk happen. Whenever there is wet floor or snow, safety signs should be displayed in the visible area. Proper instruction should give to janitors to clean the area immediately. LR11: Failure to lockdown The Seneca college fail to perform lockdown procedures, and create an opportunity for robbers to break into the Seneca cause injuries and death. The Seneca is negligent to all causes as fail to show reasonable duty of care. Lockdown practice should be trained regularly. Ensure everyone at the college is familiar with the procedures and know what to do in case of the event happen. LR12: Unusual danger on the construction site During construction, the occupier Seneca allows visitors access through the construction site. The visitors could be injured due to unusual danger happen at the construction site. The Seneca as an occupier is liable for injures because duty is owed by the Seneca. Seneca is responsible to the visitors for any unusual danger. 5

7 Either a clear no trespass sign or warning sign should be displayed on the construction site. Ensure the construction site is well-organized to eliminate unsafe risks. Proper protective equipment should be provided to the visitors. Advancement/Development LR13: Intrusions from construction Large construction project takes long period of time to complete. During the construction, the neighborhood businesses and residences may complain about noise made from the construction and inconvenience access to the neighborhood business. These result in loss of business profits and enjoyment of residences live in the area. They may file a complaint against the Seneca college for unreasonable long period of construction. The Seneca needs to look into environmental legislation to ensure the acts are implied during the construction. Tradeoff must be proved so that the neighborhood businesses and residences cant file the complain. Academic/Programs LR14: Injurious falsehood or product defamation In order to compete co-op program with other colleges, the Seneca may make false statement on the co-op program about other colleges. For instance, false statement on XX college has poor co-op programs because XX college provides lowprofile employers for co-op students. These low-profile employers only allow co-op students to do entry-level tasks such as file the document, pick the phone, etc. In this situation, the plaintiff may sue the Seneca for both injurious falsehood and product defamation. 6

8 The employer must be careful on wordings. Do not make false statement and defame others reputation unless there are evidences indicated and apparently known by the public. I believe lockdown and the tort of breach of privacy are the hot issues. Based on my observation, we haven t have any lockdown practice yet. Lockdown procedures are not known by the students. Although we live in a safe community, we have security guards in the college; however, undesired event might happen. It is a huge risk if we continue to ignore the importance of educating people on lockdown procedures and practicing lockdown. The Seneca has duty of care to show reasonable protection for both all people in the college. All the employees have ability to obtain certain information from the system. For example, credit card, social insurance number, incomes, ect. could be obtained from Finance and Administration departments. These private information may be used or leaked out to third party. It will create harmful damage to the victims. The Seneca will face serious lawsuit and compensation to the victims. There are relevant cases occurred. A case happened in US that the employee named Edward Snowden released NSA materials to the public. Another similar case was Human Resource and Skill Development (HRSD) department lost data which contains personal information. 583,000 Canada Student Loan Program borrowers were affected in this situation. (Finley 30) 7

9 References Duplessis, Dorthy, Shannon O Byrbe, Steven Enman, and Sally Gunz. Applying the Four-Step Process. Custom Edition. Canada: Nelson Education Ltd., p Print. Duplessis, Dorthy, Shannon O Byrbe, Steven Enman, and Sally Gunz. Alternative Dispute Resolution. Custom Edition. Canada: Nelson Education Ltd., p Print. Duplessis, Dorthy, Shannon O Byrbe, Steven Enman, and Sally Gunz. The Content of a Contract. Custom Edition. Canada: Nelson Education Ltd., p Print. Duplessis, Dorthy, Shannon O Byrbe, Steven Enman, and Sally Gunz. Neligent Missstatement (or Neligent Misresentation). Custom Edition. Canada: Nelson Education Ltd., p Print. Duplessis, Dorthy, Shannon O Byrbe, Steven Enman, and Sally Gunz. Neligence and the Service of Alcohol. Custom Edition. Canada: Nelson Education Ltd., 2012 p260print. Duplessis, Dorthy, Shannon O Byrbe, Steven Enman, and Sally Gunz. Tort from Business Operation. Custom Edition. Canada: Nelson Education Ltd., 2012 p260print. Duplessis, Dorthy, Shannon O Byrbe, Steven Enman, and Sally Gunz. Managing the Risk of Diverse Commercial Torts. Custom Edition. Canada: Nelson Education Ltd., 2012 p287print. Finley, Danie. Canada News Centre. Employment and Social Development Canada. Protecting Canadians' Personal Information at HRSDC. Ottawa: Human Resource Skill and Development, Web. < Poitras, Laura, and Glenn Greenwald. "Edward Snowden: 'The US government will say I aided our enemies'." Guardians US [HongKong ] , UK n. pag. Web. 18 Nov <theguardian.com>. 8