Ellen Low, Author at LegalMattersCanada

Understanding managers’ and supervisors’ right to overtime

Ellen Low / Employment/Labour / October 20, 2023

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • Managers and supervisors are typically not entitled to overtime pay under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) “if the work they do is managerial or supervisory,” but there is more to the analysis than people realize, says Toronto employment lawyer Ellen Low. “Just because somebody says you are a manager doesn’t necessarily mean that […]

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What happens when you get a work promotion you don’t want?

Ellen Low / Employment/Labour / September 20, 2023

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • A workplace promotion is typically seen as a sign of success, often providing more pay, increased authority and the acknowledgment of a job well done. But what happens if you are promoted up the chain and find the job is not for you? What if you don’t even want

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Technology advances bring new workplace challenges

Ellen Low / Employment/Labour / August 25, 2023

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • As technological advances continue to reshape the workplace, employers and employees need to be careful to protect their rights and ensure they are accountable while meeting their obligations, says Toronto employment lawyer Ellen Low. With innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) progressing exponentially in recent years, she says workers and

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AI can be a helpful tool for the legal profession if used responsibly

Ellen Low / Employment/Labour / July 24, 2023

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • The launch of ChatGPT last November presents new possibilities to the legal profession, but also raises serious concerns for lawyers who fail to exercise due diligence when incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into their practices, says Toronto employment lawyer Ellen Low. ChatGPT is a tool that allows users to have humanlike conversations with

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Failing to use preferred pronouns in the workplace is discriminatory

Ellen Low / Employment/Labour / June 20, 2023

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • The importance of the proper use of personal pronouns in the workplace cannot be understated and employers who ignore workers’ human rights do so at their own peril, says Toronto employment lawyer Ellen Low. Gender identity and expression were added as grounds of discrimination under Ontario’s Human Rights Code (HRC) in 2012,

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Have you been ordered back to the office? Know your rights

Ellen Low / Employment/Labour / May 24, 2023

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • With companies increasingly ordering remote and hybrid workers back to the office, employers and employees would be wise to review their rights and obligations, says Toronto employment lawyer Ellen Low. “Recall to the office has become a hot-button issue,” she tells LegalMattersCanada.ca. “More and more people working in a hybrid or

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Denying an employee their basic ESA rights can be costly

Ellen Low / Employment/Labour / April 28, 2023

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • Employers who fail to follow the letter of the law when terminating a worker could find themselves paying hefty moral damage awards, says Toronto employment lawyer Ellen Low. Denying an employee their basic statutory rights under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA), even inadvertently, can be costly, says Low, principal of Ellen Low &

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Employers need to pay heed to court of appeal decision

Ellen Low / Employment/Labour / April 10, 2023

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • A recent court of appeal ruling should give employers the impetus to review the employment contracts of long-standing staff, says Toronto employment lawyer Ellen Low. In Celestini v. Shoplogix Inc., the Ontario Court of Appeal (ONCA) found that an employee was not bound by the terms of the termination clause in his

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Honesty is the best policy during a job interview

Ellen Low / Employment/Labour / March 3, 2023

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • It is not unusual to exaggerate on a résumé or in a job interview but withholding information, even if you believe it may be inconsequential, can be costly, says Toronto employment lawyer Ellen Low. “There is a general understanding that some people will embellish their résumé. Of course, outright

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Government plan to battle opioid crisis should be on employers’ radar

Ellen Low / Employment/Labour / January 19, 2023

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • Employers would be well advised to “err on the side of caution” when deciding if they need to comply with the province’s incoming regulation to have opioid antidotes onsite and the training to use them, says Toronto employment lawyer Ellen Low. Last month, the Ontario government announced that at-risk employers will soon

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