Sexual Harassment Training - Protect Your Business

Lawsuits can be a profit killer for any business. Defamation of the business when these lawsuits are publicized can prove to be even more of a challenge. Worse than that is the actual consequence of getting charged with sexual harassment since it is a part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Any business that employs more than 15 people is required to undergo sexual harassment training according to the act. However, it's not a bad idea for small businesses, either.

Sexual harassment is a term that refers to any unwanted sexual advances, contact, verbal or physical acts that are sexual in nature, seeking sexual factors, or the interference of sexuality in the workplace in any shape or form that affects performance. This is considered a form of sexual discrimination, and is legally unwelcome in the workplace. The businesses affected by the Civil Rights Act that are required to enforce the policies and provide proper training are all local, state, and federal organizations, as well as private companies and corporations. After all, creating an environment where people can work comfortably and perform their best is essential for success in any business.

There are many different programs out there for those who are looking to implement sexual harassment training into their business or workplace. Choosing the right program involves finding one that can offer initial training and continuing support for your business, so that you can keep up on all things related to the sexual harassment training world as they come up. Continuing education is essential in such areas, because laws are always being revised, added to, and changed, and the environment of the workplace is constantly evolving.

The biggest thing to note with sexual harassment training is that it should not be downplayed when it is presented to women. People generally think of women as the victims in nearly every situation, but this is far from the reality of the situation. Women can be the harassers just as well as men can, if not better. They just tend to get away with it more often because men stereotypically don't want to admit that they have been being victimized or harassed by a woman. A change in attitudes with more women working their way up the corporate ladder is necessary. People need to realize that anyone can be a victim, and that women are not the only ones out there. With proper sexual harassment training, the workplace can become a more enjoyable and productive place for everyone.

Proper sexual harassment training from 360training.com can not only make your workplace a more enjoyable and productive place but also guard your business against lawsuits with the convenience of online sexual harassment training courses.

Employee Monitoring - Business Risks For Employers And How To Avoid Them

E-mail and Internet use are integral parts of the typical worker's daily routine. Because of its speed and overall convenience, e-mail has replaced the interoffice memorandum as the preferred method of communication. Employee access to the Internet also is important as a means of conducting job-related research and transactions.

For these reasons, employers often have little choice but to provide their employees with Internet access and e-mail accounts. At the same time, however, employees' use of these capabilities carries downside risks for the employer.

One issue posed by employee e-mail and Internet use is loss of efficiency. Recent studies show that businesses lost an estimated £5.3 billion to recreational workplace web surfing in 2003.

Another report indicated that employees are costing their companies nearly £1.5 million a year in lost productivity by spending an average of thirty minutes a day using e-mail for personal, non-work-related reasons.

Another challenge is the risk that employees' computer use will expose the company to legal liability.

For example, according to another survey, almost 72% of the pornographic sites on the Internet are visited during work hours. Openly viewing sexually explicit websites or sending offensive material obtained from the web may create a hostile work environment. Moreover, inappropriate messages sent over the company's e-mail system could expose the company to harassment, defamation, or other claims.

One study found that more than 50% of employees had received pornographic, sexist, or racist e-mails at work.

Still another challenge is the possibility that employees will use the Internet in a way that undermines or violates the employer's rights, interests, and practices. Some employees, for example, may use email to disclose the employer's trade secrets or proprietary information, or to engage in inappropriate contacts with competitors or customers.

So what's the solution for today's employers?

To reduce these risks, employers must monitor their employees' use of e-mail and Internet access in the workplace. Accordingly, employers should be familiar with the law in this area and should implement policies and practices that minimize the risk of lawsuits or enforcement actions.

With such policies in place employers may monitor their e-mail and Internet systems, and employees will conform their actions to the reality that their employer may view their messages.

Policies should be tailored to the workplace environment in which they will exist. For example, in many contexts such as telecommuting the line between business and personal use may be very grey while in other contexts e-mail or Internet access may be provided to an employee only for a clearly defined, limited purpose and thus the lines between acceptable and unacceptable use may be clear.

Employers need to take these various factors into consideration when drawing up their policies. Generally however, an effective policy should inform employees that the employer is the owner of the e-mail or Internet system and that this includes all communications and stored information. It should also include a statement of the purposes for which the system is to be used as well as the discipline that an employee can expect to face for abuse of the system.

There should be a statement advising employees that they should not expect privacy in communications made over the system and that those communications will be monitored to ensure that the employer's property is being used only for authorized purposes.

An employer may also want to include a non-exclusive list of examples of the kind of use that the employer considers unauthorized personal use, or inappropriate use.

Conclusion:

Electronic communication is becoming more and more vital to the modern workplace. The increase in the number of employees equipped with e-mail and/or Internet access raises risks for employers.

The most effective way to manage those risks is by monitoring the use employees make of the electronic communication tools provided to them, by using an Internet monitoring and surveillance software program. But also to deal with the inherent tension between monitoring and employee privacy is to put in place an explicit e-mail and Internet use policy, which informs employees that their communication will be monitored.

Profile: SavvyApps is a privately owned software company which specialises in leading PC/Internet Monitoring & Surveillance Software Solutions for businesses who want to monitor their employees Internet usage.

If you would like to learn more about how PC/Internet Monitoring Software can help your business or would like some more ideas please use the link below:

PC/Internet Monitoring & Surveillance Software

The Business Legal Checkup - Preventive Advice For the Legal Health of Your Business

More than 250 years ago, Benjamin Franklin famously said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". He was advising Philadelphia homeowners to insure their homes against fire to avoid catastrophic losses. Franklin's advice is just as applicable today to the legal issues of your business.

In this article, we explain a new legal service, Canadian Business Legal Checkup, an audit of legal matters affecting your business. Business Legal Checkup is a diagnostic tool most small and medium size businesses could use to verify if legal aspects of their operation comply with the law and to minimize risk, litigation and expense. When the Business Legal Checkup is completed, the business owner receives a lawyer's report red-flagging matters which need correction, improvement or further legal advice.

A closer look at the Business Legal Checkup

Your business is built on a foundation of laws and legal procedures. As a prudent business owner, you have probably considered the following legal matters:

o You had to incorporate your business. The corporation has been properly set up. All shares are properly issued. Directors and officers have been appointed. The corporate minutes and register are up-to-date.
o You and other directors of the corporation know exactly what your duties and liabilities are. All directors are protected from liability by sufficient insurance coverage.
o You have a shareholders' agreement so that all shareholders know their roles. All partners are treated fairly. There is an orderly method for valuation and termination of the corporation. You understand the minority shareholders rights requirements of the Business Corporations Act.
o You filed a business registration and have a system to renew it before expiry and you have registered any business names that you are using.
o You filed trademark, patent and copyright applications to protect the intellectual property of your business.
o Your URL (web address) is trademarked. You have audited your website to check for breaches of privacy law, defamation and technology law issues. Your online sales portal is set up to avoid legal problems with privacy law, identity theft and contract issues.
o Your licencing and registrations are up-to-date. If your salespeople have to be registered or licenced, you have a system to ensure that their registrations are up-to-date and that their regulatory requirements are being monitored.
o You have a long term lease for your plant or office. You had your lease vetted by a lawyer. You know what it says, including the extra rent the landlord can demand. You know the deadline for your right to renew.
o You use several legal standard forms and contracts in your business. These have all been vetted by a lawyer to comply with applicable laws including the PPSA, the Interest Act, the Consumer Protection Act, the Sale of Goods Act, the Mercantile Law Amendment Act and the Bills of Exchange Act and contract law.
o If you extend credit, you know that your service charges don't exceed the "criminal rate of interest".
o You know prohibitions against misleading advertising and unfair competition in the Competition Act.
o You understand the privacy legislation and you have a system to ensure that you comply each time you collect, use, or disclose personal information.
o Your employees have signed agreements which spell out the length of notice they are entitled to receive if you terminate their employment. You know who is entitled to how much and what to do if you decide to terminate an employee, whatever the reason. You understand your obligations under the Employment Standards Act.
o Your employees have all signed non-competition covenants and non-solicitation agreements to prevent them from taking away your best clients, business procedures, best employees and trade secrets if they leave to set up shop on their own.
o You have a procedure to prevent violation of the Human Rights Code and you know the protected grounds of discrimination. You also understand all of the elements of sexual harassment and you know how to deal with it.
o You know your company's rights and obligations under the Workplace Safety Insurance Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
o You have liability and multi-peril insurance and you know what it covers.
o Your manufacturing and distribution processes are set up to avoid potentially devastating product liability and class action lawsuits. You have minimized risks.
o You keep up-to-date with changes in the law which affect the corporate, contractual, insurance and employment law issues in your industry.
o You have complied with the filing requirements for income taxes, sales taxes and GST. You have had your business and municipal tax assessment vetted.
o You know what precautions to take to help prevent litigation.
o If you are about to get involved in litigation, you have an action plan to maximize your chances of success and to keep the cost in check. When hiring a lawyer, you know what you need and what to expect.

Stop the presses - before we continue - do we hear you saying there are many items on this list that you haven't looked after, that you haven't thought of or which could be updated?

We're not surprised. In our experience, small and medium-sized business owners don't get around to dealing with many important legal issues involved in organizing their business relationships with partners, shareholders, customers, employees and government and in preventing or managing the risk of expensive litigation. Often, agreements are not fully thought through.

Small business owners tend to do only what they absolutely have to do to comply with the law and are reluctant to spend money for top drawer legal services when an inexpensive shortcut appears to do the trick. Your focus is getting your business up and running, getting your product to market, making sales and keeping costs down. You could be lucky and run your business for years without anything going wrong.

Fair enough, but if you disregard preventive legal measures like the ones mentioned, your business is like a driver without a seatbelt in a car that has never been serviced ---in other words, a catastrophic accident waiting to happen.

Here are two examples of business legal nightmares that could have been easily avoided with a program of preventive law such as the Business Legal Checkup. These are actual cases, decided in Ontario courts:

o A Toronto RV dealer sold a motor home to a customer. After using it for a couple of weeks, the customer complained that the salesperson had misled him about a "rental program" and brought the motor home back and refused to make any payments. The dealer sold the motor home as a used vehicle and suffered a $25,000 loss for which it sued the customer.

The Ontario Court of Appeal decided that customer was entitled to return the RV and cancel the contract because the salesman's Motor Vehicle Dealers Act registration expired and was not renewed. This made the contract illegal. The RV dealer didn't have a system to check if all their salespersons' registrations were current. The dealer not only lost $25,000 but also had to pay about $30,000 to their own lawyer and almost that much in legal costs to the customer's lawyer. A Business Legal Checkup could have saved this business most of the $100,000 and a lot of aggravation.

o A southwestern Ontario company was a wholesale distributor of car alarm systems, which started as a basement operation and developed into a successful business. The owner used contract forms he found on the internet. Why pay a lawyer when forms were right there for the taking? His standard form contracts had statements that he didn't fully understand but if they were on the internet, they must be OK. He didn't have a lawyer check them. The standard form agreements didn't create a problem for several years.

The distributor extended credit to CAG, a company owned by a Mr. Don for more than $90,000 worth of car alarms. He wasn't worried about payment because Mr. Don signed the standard form contract --- the one he found on the internet for free --- which stated that Mr. Don was personally liable for everything CAG ordered. When CAG went out of business, the distributor sued Mr. Don. The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the claim against Mr. Don because the personal liability clause in the standard form agreement was unclear and was capable of two meanings. The distributor didn't recover his $90,000 and had to pay legal fees to his own lawyer and costs to Mr. Don's lawyer. A Business Legal Checkup could have saved him almost $150,000 and possible financial ruin.

These examples are the tip of the iceberg. As you read this article, you can probably think of other examples that affected your business. In each case, it's more than the legal expenses that are at stake. The business owner has to devote time and sleepless nights to the legal dispute and loses time from running the business.

How does a Business Legal Checkup work?

o You will be asked to complete some forms to provide confidential information about your business.
o You will have a discussion with the lawyer to assess the scope of the Business Legal Checkup. For example, it doesn't cover tax law, environmental law or succession planning unless special arrangements are made.
o A basic Business Legal Checkup will provide a diagnostic review of the legal status of the following issues in your business: (1) Set up and governance of your corporation; (2) Relationships among the owners of the business; (3) Relationships with employees; (4) the contracts and forms used in the business; (5) Competition Law and Illegal Advertising; (6) Intellectual Property, Trade Secrets, Confidentiality and Privacy; (7) Safety and risk management; (8) Risk analysis and efficient management of existing litigation; (9) Internet Issues; (10) Regulatory licencing issues.
o A Business Legal Checkup can also be customized to meet the business owner's specific requirements. This may require consultation with outside legal experts.
o In preparation for the Business Legal Checkup, you will be asked to provide documents and information concerning each category of the analysis.
o After the documents have been reviewed by a lawyer, consultation may be required with other lawyers. Further clarifications may be required from you and other senior officers of your business.
o A report will be prepared explaining the status of each topic and red-flagging issues which require attention and indicating their level of urgency.
o When the Business Legal Checkup report is ready, the business owner may prefer to have the Business Legal Checkup lawyer or legal team present the findings orally. An oral presentation followed by a Q&A session can assist the business owner to plan the next steps efficiently.
o The Business Legal Checkup legal team will facilitate referrals to lawyers who are specialized in resolving the legal problems identified by the Business Legal Checkup.

How much will a Business Legal Checkup cost?

For a small startup business with less than five employees, operating out of a single location and having only one business entity, a Business Legal Checkup can usually be completed for about $5,000 to $7,500 if there are no unusual problems.

Who needs a Business Legal Checkup?

Every business needs to know whether its legal processes are efficiently compliant with the law. Public corporations are obliged to provide certain levels of legal compliance to government and regulatory bodies. A small private corporation does not have the same levels of mandatory compliance but failure to do so voluntarily is like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand.

A Business Legal Checkup is also useful for a business owner who is considering the sale of his business or for a prospective purchaser of a business. Minority shareholders could insist on a Business Legal Checkup annually or bi-annually to ensure that management and the majority shareholders are meeting their obligations to the corporation.

A Business Legal Checkup may also be a credibility tool for a business seeking financing or government contracts. Unlike a financial audit, ISO9001 and ISO 14400 compliance standards, the Business Legal Checkup is a confidential report to management only and expressly excludes reliance by outside parties. If an outside party, such as a lender or investor, will receive a copy of the report, the Business Legal Checkup legal team must be informed in advance so that concerns relevant to these outside parties can be taken into account.

Where can my business get a Business Legal Checkup?

So far as we know, the Business Legal Checkup, as a fixed-price legal diagnostic tool for private small and medium-sized businesses is a new legal service in Canada. Interested business owners are invited to contact us for information.

Benjamin Franklin's famous advice has evolved. A Business Legal Checkup can be much weightier than an "ounce of prevention". It could provide "tons" of preventive advice to save your business from damaging or catastrophic expense. The Business Legal Checkup will also provide the business owner with peace of mind which, as another saying goes, is "worth its weight in gold".

October 2008. © Igor Ellyn and Orie Niedzviecki
This article is for information only and not legal advice.

Igor Ellyn, QC, CS and Orie Niedzviecki, Partners

Ellyn Law LLP, Business Litigation Lawyers, Toronto
http://www.ellynlaw.com

Igor Ellyn, QC, CS and Orie Niedzviecki are partners of ELLYN LAW LLP Business Litigation and Arbitration Lawyers, a Toronto law firm, established specializing in dispute resolution for small and medium businesses and their shareholders.

The firm is a member of INBLF (http://www.inblf.com) and its designated Toronto firm for shareholder disputes. Igor Ellyn is a Specialist in Civil Litigation and a past president of the Ontario Bar Association. He is a chartered arbitrator and mediator and the author of many legal articles, some of which may be downloaded from the firm's website.

Orie Niedzviecki is a business litigation lawyer, whose practice includes commercial disputes, employment law, libel and slander, construction litigation and estate litigation. He is also admitted in the District of Columbia, USA.

For more information about the authors and their litigation services, please visit http://www.ellynlaw.com