An Alberta court has ruled that employees receiving disability payments during the reasonable notice period can’t “double-dip” by receiving payments for lost wages. “The decision affirms the principle that employees are entitled only to what they would have received had they been working during the notice period,” says Sheena Owens, an employment lawyer at Stikeman […]
The Ontario Divisional Court has confirmed that an employer’s duty to accommodate ends when an employee’s disability becomes permanent and thereby frustrates the contract of employment. “The decision in Katz v. Clarke is a breath of fresh air for employers because it reaffirms that employees seeking accommodation can’t merely inform their employers of their desire to […]
As the labour dispute between Western Forest Products Inc. and United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 heads into its third month, tensions are running high over health benefits. Employees who are members of the Steelworkers chapter have been on strike since July 1, 2019. The proposed collective agreement in question includes concessions on a number of issues, […]
The union representing employees of Dominion Stores supermarkets in Newfoundland is accusing parent company, Loblaw Companies Ltd., of using an increasing number of part-time employees in order to eliminate full-time jobs. Loblaw offered voluntary buyout packages to its full-time staffers in Newfoundland in June, with the aim of eliminating 44 positions, as part of what […]
Data is everywhere in the fourth industrial revolution, with no industry left untouched by the momentum it’s creating, according to Nikolas Badminton, futurist and chief executive officer of Exponential Minds. For benefits plans and disability management programs, data analytics can offer insight into how decisions are made, but the landscape is evolving as it becomes […]
About four in 10 (41 per cent) U.S. employers said they’re making a major effort to reduce absenteeism in 2018, according to a new survey by the Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America. The survey found the number of employers looking to reduce employee absenteeism has significantly increased in the past few years, up from […]
Just 24 per cent of plan sponsors said they regularly receive claims analyses to help identify disease states in their workplaces, according to the 2019 Sanofi Canada health-care survey. This number rose to 31 per cent for employers with 500 or more employees and dropped to 13 per cent among small employers. It also found […]
Compared with recreational users, medical cannabis patients frequently use CBD-dominant preparations with the smallest amount of THC to get the greatest improvements in symptom control, function and quality of life with the fewest adverse events, said Michael Koehn, founder of the CannSolve Clinic in British Columbia. During a session at Benefits Canada’s Chronic Disease at […]
A recent RBC Insurance Services Inc. study found 45 percent of employees on disability claimed their workplaces pressured them to go back earlier than they felt they were able to do so. This is a significant increase from the 33 per cent of respondents who said the same in the previous year’s survey. Indeed, there’s a […]
Long-term disability claims are expected to fall by 3.6 per cent in 2019 compared to 2018 due to a slowing Canadian economy, according to research by RBC Insurance Services Inc. Since LTD claims impact both employees and business owners, knowing where these trends are headed can help employers plan for and manage costs related to claims and ensure they have adequate […]