Couriers working for food delivery service Foodora in Toronto are planning to unionize by joining the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). Foodora currently classifies couriers as independent contractors, which means they are covered under provincial labour protections, including EI, sick days and severance pay.

Can Foodora couriers legally unionize if they aren't employees? Are Foodora couriers actually employees, and not independent contractors?

Employment Lawyer Lior Samfiru, Partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, joined host Peter Shurman on Global News Radio 640 Toronto to discuss the topic of unionization for Foodora bike and car couriers.

Employment Issues?

Before you call a lawyer, use the Pocket Employment Lawyer to calculate your potential severance package and find out if you might have a case.

Call 1-855-821-5900, email [email protected] or fill out a contact form to get help from an employment lawyer.

Denied Long-Term Disability?

Discover your rights when your long-term disability claim is denied. Find out more here or use the Pocket Disability Lawyer to find out how we can help.

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Ontario employers’ duty to pay workers overtime just got a little lighter, following passage of a law that quietly reduces some protections around excess hours of work in the province.

Employment lawyer Lior Samfiru, partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, joined host Bill Kelly on Global News Radio 900 CHML to discuss the changes that Bill 66 has introduced to employment law in the province.

Employment Issues?

Before you call a lawyer, use the Pocket Employment Lawyer to calculate your potential severance package and find out if you might have a case.

Call 1-855-821-5900, email [email protected] or fill out a contact form to get help from an employment lawyer.

Denied Long-Term Disability?

Discover your rights when your long-term disability claim is denied. Find out more here or use the Pocket Disability Lawyer to find out how we can help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ontario Provincial Police deputy commissioner Brad Blair, who expressed concerns about a friend of the premier’s appointment as the province’s top cop, has been fired. Did the OPP have "just cause" to terminate Blair's employment? What are Blair's rights in this situation?

Employment lawyer Lior Samfiru, partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, joined host Jeff McArthur on Global News Radio 640 Toronto to discuss Blair's workplace rights and termination for cause.

Samfiru also discussed workers' rights where music in the workplace is concerned, following online complaints from unhappy Starbucks employees who no longer want to listen to the soundtrack from the Broadway hit musical Hamilton on repeat in the coffee shop.

Employment Issues?

Before you call a lawyer, use the Pocket Employment Lawyer to calculate your potential severance package and find out if you might have a case.

Call 1-855-821-5900, email [email protected] or fill out a contact form to get help from an employment lawyer.

Denied Long-Term Disability?

Discover your rights when your long-term disability claim is denied. Find out more here or use the Pocket Disability Lawyer to find out how we can help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Payless Shoes will soon be filing for creditor protection, ensuring that 2,400 employees in 248 stores across the country will find themselves without any severance pay as they struggle to find new employment elsewhere.

As employment law firm Samfiru Tumarkin LLP noted when Sears Canada obtained creditor protection before closing its doors in early 2018, bankruptcy laws protect a struggling company, and allow it to favour its secured creditors (banks) over employees. The rights of the employees are pushed to the back of the line.

Employment lawyer Lior Samfiru, partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, joined The Bill Kelly Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML to explain what the government can do to improve support for employees who often go empty-handed following a company's bankruptcy. They also discussed the misinformation that continues to exist concerning severance pay in Ontario.

Employment Issues?

Before you call a lawyer, use the Pocket Employment Lawyer to calculate your potential severance package and find out if you might have a case.

Call 1-855-821-5900, email [email protected] or fill out a contact form to get help from an employment lawyer.

Denied Long-Term Disability?

Discover your rights when your long-term disability claim is denied. Find out more here or use the Pocket Disability Lawyer to find out how we can help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Payless Shoes will soon be filing for creditor protection, ensuring that 2,400 employees in 248 stores across the country will find themselves without any severance pay as they struggle to find new employment elsewhere.

As employment law firm Samfiru Tumarkin LLP noted when Sears Canada obtained creditor protection before closing its doors in early 2018, bankruptcy laws protect a struggling company, and allow it to favour its secured creditors (banks) over employees. The rights of the employees are pushed to the back of the line.

Employment lawyer Lior Samfiru, partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, joined The Morning Show with Mike Stafford and Supriya Dwivedi on Global News Radio 640 Toronto to explain what the government can do to improve support for employees who often go empty-handed following a company's bankruptcy.

Employment Issues?

Before you call a lawyer, use the Pocket Employment Lawyer to calculate your potential severance package and find out if you might have a case.

Call 1-855-821-5900, email [email protected] or fill out a contact form to get help from an employment lawyer.

Denied Long-Term Disability?

Discover your rights when your long-term disability claim is denied. Find out more here or use the Pocket Disability Lawyer to find out how we can help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A controversial clause found in Uber’s contracts for its Ontario drivers is illegal, “unconscionable” and “unenforceable”, the Ontario Court of Appeal declared in a decision released today. The Arbitration Clause declares that all legal disputes between Uber and its Ontario drivers are to be heard in the Netherlands, rather than a local court.

In its decision concerning Heller v. Uber Technologies Inc., the Ontario Court of Appeal concluded that “Uber chose this Arbitration Clause in order to favour itself and thus take advantage of its drivers, who are clearly vulnerable to the market strength of Uber” and that the clause “amounts to an illegal contracting out of an employment standard if the drivers are found to be employees.”

Employment lawyer Lior Samfiru, founding partner of Samfiru Tumarkin LLP and one of the lawyers representing David Heller, joined Newstalk 580 CFRA in Ottawa to discuss the recent decision, and what it means for the class action lawsuit against Uber that argues that Uber drivers are actually employees and not independent contractors.

Read Samfiru Tumarkin's release about the Ontario Court of Appeal's decision here.

Read about the decision in The Toronto Star, The Financial Post, and on CBC News.

Employment Issues?

Before you call a lawyer, use the Pocket Employment Lawyer to calculate your potential severance package and find out if you might have a case.

Call 1-855-821-5900, email [email protected] or fill out a contact form to get help from an employment lawyer.

Denied Long-Term Disability?

Discover your rights when your long-term disability claim is denied. Find out more here or use the Pocket Disability Lawyer to find out how we can help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A number of Ottawa Senators openly joked about their penalty-killing abilities, mock one of their coaches and laugh at the ineffectiveness of special-team meetings in a candid video that was posted online.

The video — since taken down — appeared to have been shot in Phoenix on Oct. 29 or 30 during the team’s western road swing, recorded, presumably by the Uber driver,

Can an employee be punished for badmouthing their employer in a supposedly private setting?

Employment lawyer Lior Samfiru joined Newstalk 580 CFRA's Bill Carroll on The Morning Rush discuss the rights of employers and employees when an incident stems from off-duty conduct.

Employment Issues?

Before you call a lawyer, use the Pocket Employment Lawyer to calculate your potential severance package and find out if you might have a case.

Call 1-855-821-5900, email [email protected] or fill out a contact form to get help from an employment lawyer.

Denied Long-Term Disability?

Discover your rights when your long-term disability claim is denied. Find out more here or use the Pocket Disability Lawyer to find out how we can help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New labour reforms introduced by the Ford government do not give employers the ability to change terms of employment without consequences, says leading employment lawyer Lior Samfiru.

Bill 47, also known as the Making Ontario Open for Business Act, passed first reading at Queen’s Park on Tuesday. The bill will change many aspects of Bill 148 (freezing minimum wage for 33 months, reversing the onus on employers where employee misclassification is concerned), including Equal Pay for Equal Work.

Lior Samfiru, partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, joined host Kelly Cutrara on Global News Radio 640 Toronto to discuss the proposed changes to the Employment Standards Act, and what employees should be wary of.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The legalization of marijuana across Canada is just days away, yet many employers are not properly prepared for the realities and legalities surrounding employees and cannabis use. What are an employees rights to use of marijuana during and outside of work hours? What should employers do RIGHT NOW to ensure that they're ready for legalization on Wednesday, October 17th 2018?

Employment lawyer Lior Samfiru joined Newstalk 580 CFRA's Bill Carroll on The Morning Rush (during #BillsBigBreakfast at Hurley's Grill) to discuss marijuana in the workplace.

Employment Issues?

Before you call a lawyer, use the Pocket Employment Lawyer to calculate your potential severance package and find out if you might have a case.

Call 1-855-821-5900, email [email protected] or fill out a contact form to get help from an employment lawyer.

Denied Long-Term Disability?

Discover your rights when your long-term disability claim is denied. Find out more here or use the Pocket Disability Lawyer to find out how we can help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is vowing to scrap Bill 148, the labour reform legislation brought in by the previous Liberal government that raised the province’s minimum wage and introduced a range of other worker protections. This declaration comes days after his government said the law was under review.

Employment lawyer Lior Samfiru joined Global News Radio 640 Toronto's Mike Stafford and Supriya Dwivedi to discuss the changes Bill 148 brought to Ontario workplaces, and how the repeal of said bill would impacct employment law.

Employment Issues?

Before you call a lawyer, use the Pocket Employment Lawyer to calculate your potential severance package and find out if you might have a case.

Call 1-855-821-5900, email [email protected] or fill out a contact form to get help from an employment lawyer.

Denied Long-Term Disability?

Discover your rights when your long-term disability claim is denied. Find out more here or use the Pocket Disability Lawyer to find out how we can help.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.