American employment law for Canadian HR professionals


Date and Time:

Starts: 03/22/2017 8:30 AM

Ends: 03/22/2017 4:30 PM

Registration Closes:03/20/2017 4:00 AM

7 CPD Hours Hour(s)

Location:
Yorkville Conference Center 150 Bloor St W, 2nd FL Toronto, ON

Price:

HRPA Members:
$395 + Taxes
Non-Members:
$475 + Taxes
Join HRPA Now

Availability

Please note that the maximum
number of complimentary
registrations for this event
has been reached. You may
still register for this as
a paid event using the
Register Online button.

Additional Information

Registration Deadline:
March 15, 2017

Event Sponsor


American employment and labour law is very different from Canadian law and is changing fast. This seminar provides a comprehensive overview of US federal employment laws including key facts and updates around labour (union) relations law, wage and hour law, disability and leave management law, employee benefits issues, and other employment laws. Insight will be provided with a Canadian perspective on these U.S. laws and how they compare to Canadian employment laws.


Learning objectives:


<  Educate attendees on a variety of key U.S. employment law statutes and regulations and their application and evolving trends

<  Improve issue spotting and employee relations skills of HR professionals to enable them to confront these issues head on in a manner that reduces liability of employment related claims

<  Provide an insight into these U.S. laws from a Canadian perspective and in consideration of how these laws compare to Canadian law


Who should attend:


Senior HR professionals, in-house counsel and senior company management, who are involved with American operations


Program Agenda:


<  Status of Employment at Will in the United States, and its myriad exceptions

<  Employment Discrimination Law (America’s lottery system answer to severance pay)

<  FLSA – How to Pay Salaried and Hourly Employees in Compliance with the New Laws. The Fair Labor Standards Act imposes many strict requirements about how employers must pay their salaried employees and their hourly employees, and the law imposes significant penalties for violations of the law. The FLSA is also undergoing substantial changes, so companies that may have complied with the law in the past must implement new systems and analyses of their employees in order to remain in compliance with the law.

<  NLRA – Major Developments under the NLRA (the Labour Law) in the United States as the NLRB which administers the law takes a far more pro-union and pro-employee stance. The NLRB has issued rules making it much more likely that unrelated employers will be found to be joint employers who can be organized more quickly, have made union elections much faster and and have issued far reaching regulations of employees’ use of social media. These decisions impact union and non-union employers alike.

<  FMLA and ADA – Disability and leave management is a complex aspect of U.S. employment law that requires careful consideration by HR professionals. This program will cover the details of the eligibility requirements and qualifying reasons for FMLA leave, applicable notice and certification requirements, and the practical application of this leave in real life situations. The principles of the Americans with Disabilities Act will also be discussed, including the definition of a disability, reasonable accommodation obligations, and the interaction of the ADA with the FMLA.

<  Canadian perspectives – Insight on how U.S. employment laws compare to Canadian laws to provide a full perspective for Canadian employers with U.S. operations.

Speaker bio(s)
Naomi Calla, Lawyer

Naomi Calla is an associate in the Toronto office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. She practises labour and employment law and education law, with a special interest and focus on human rights law.
Naomi acts on behalf of employers and employees in all forms of employment-related litigation. She has appeared as counsel before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, Ontario Labour Relations Board, Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal, the Superior Court of Ontario and the Ontario Divisional Court. She has also mediated and arbitrated many cases to successful resolution.
She joined BLG after summering and articling at the Firm.


Messeloff Daniel

DANIEL L. MESSELOFF is Of Counsel in the Cleveland, OH office of Jackson Lewis P.C. Mr. Messeloff works with clients to address, manage, and resolve legal issues they may have with their employees, with the goal of minimizing potential legal liability and contributing to his clients’ overall business success. When legal issues cannot be resolved without litigation, Mr. Messeloff defends his clients in court, and has the insight and experience to know when to settle claims on advantageous terms and when to aggressively defend claims through trial. Mr. Messeloff is also an experienced labor litigator who has represented clients in labor arbitrations, NLRB proceedings, and before federal courts. Whether drafting or revising employment policies, conducting employee training sessions, advising clients on compliance issues, or representing his clients in court, Mr. Messeloff understands his clients’ need to resolve problems regarding human resources, employment law, and other legal issues as efficiently and effectively as possible.
During his legal career, Mr. Messeloff has litigated many multi-million dollar employment lawsuits, including class- and collective-action claims and single-plaintiff discrimination cases. Over the past several years, Mr. Messeloff has led the litigation of multiple class actions, from investigating potential claims, responding to complaints, motion practice, discovery, class certification issues, and all other substantive and procedural aspects of this specialized area of law. Mr. Messeloff has also litigated disputes of all sizes arising under federal, state, and local laws prohibiting discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, gender, age, disability, religion, and other protected classes.


Corey Donovan Tracey, Principal, Jackson Lewis P.C.

Ms. Tracey is engaged in day-to-day counseling of employers on their employment policies and handbooks, disability and leave management, discipline and termination, wage and hour issues, and the proper conduct of reductions in force. She has also conducted training sessions on anti-discrimination and anti-harassment programs, leave administration and litigation avoidance. Ms. Tracey regularly represents employers in administrative proceedings and in litigation involving claims of discrimination and harassment, retaliation, whistleblowing, and violations of leave and wage and hour laws..


Ms. Tracey’s notable experience includes defending a large government contractor in multiple federal and state law actions involving claims of discrimination following a large-scale reduction in force; defending national employers in the retail and recreation industries against regional and nationwide collective actions involving Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) claims for failure to pay overtime wages; defending a large regional bank against claims for violations of the Sarbanes Oxley Act; defending a large national retailer and a national restaurant chain in multiple administrative proceedings alleging discrimination and other employment law claims in Ohio and various states; and assisting a national pharmaceutical company with the conduct of a large scale reduction in force, including specific focus on WARN Act compliance.


Ms. Tracey has been a presenter for the National Business Institute, the Ohio Manufacturers Association and other organizations, speaking on various employment laws and their interpretation, and also litigation avoidance techniques for employers in relation to employee discipline, discharge, pay and leave.


Ms. Tracey is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association. She is admitted to practice law in the state of Ohio. She is also admitted to practice law before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; and the U.S. District Court for the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio.


Ms. Tracey received her B.A., magna cum laude, with High Honors, from the University of Cincinnati in 1999, where she was also a Distinguished Honors Scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her J.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 2002, where she was an Executive member of the Moot Court Board and the Order of the Barrister. She was also the director of the College of Law's National Moot Court Competition, and a member of the Law Women and Law Women’s Athletic Societies.



Jim Stone, Office Managing Principal, Jackson Lewis P.C.

With more than 25 years of experience in labor and employment law, Mr. Stone has conducted more than 120 negotiations with unions, defended hundreds of employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, and other claims in court and before administrative agencies such as the EEOC, NLRB, and Department of Labor. He has defended companies against a broad range of challenges including wrongful discharge claims, wage and hour actions, large multi-plaintiff discrimination claims, as well as counseling large, middle market, and smaller clients in a wide variety of employment and labor law matters. Several recent matters handled by Mr. Stone and his colleagues have been reported in the national media, including major cases involving the use of neutrality agreements in the automotive industry in Michigan.


He has also litigated a large number of employment cases through trial or dismissal, including those involving restructuring and reductions in force and restructuring of benefits. He has counseled clients and written on topics as diverse as the ADA, ADEA, WARN Act, the Railway Labor Act, the FMLA, sexual harassment, and other forms of discrimination, non-competition agreements, wrongful discharge, and hiring practices. Mr. Stone also has extensive familiarity with certain international employment law issues, especially those of Canada..


Mr. Stone is particularly knowledgeable about the manufacturing, transportation, automotive, health care, gaming, hospitality and steel industries. He often consults with clients regarding the legal aspects of employment terminations and downsizing. Mr. Stone believes that clients should take a pragmatic approach to their employment relations, combining the best practices from human resource, labor relations, and legal strategies, while aggressively defending themselves against unwarranted attacks on their management rights. Mr. Stone has also provided representation and advice in many successful union avoidance campaigns, labor negotiations, arbitrations, and unfair labor practice charges and actions involving neutrality agreements..


Prior to joining Jackson Lewis, Mr. Stone was chairman of the Labor and Employment Law Group at a prominent regional law firm with more than 130 lawyers..


Mr. Stone is included in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law. He was named an Ohio Super Lawyer by Law and Politics magazine, as featured in Northern Ohio Live magazine, and was included in the 2015 and 2016 Best Lawyers in America lists. He was additionally named a “Leader in the Field” in Ohio in Labor and Employment Law in the 2013 and 2014 Chambers USA Legal Guide.