Franklin Law is hard at work developing the Employees First series of Guides and Courses: The Employees First series of Guides and Courses will provide workers like you with immediate access to information, specifically geared to helping employees – and only employees – secure justice in the workplace. These Guides and Courses will provide workers like you with at least five key benefits:
Benefit #1 – Employees First Guides and Courses will help workers to decide whether or not to represent themselves or hire a lawyer. They will provide a brutally honest overview of the risks and benefits of employees representing themselves, make it clear that there are real risks and benefits when you hire a lawyer, and set out considerations which may make one option more attractive than the other.
Benefit #2 – Employees First Guides and Courses will help Workers who want to represent themselves beat Employers when it matters the most, at the Ministry of Labour (MOL), Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB), Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO), Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT), or in Employment Insurance (EI) hearings, Canada Pension Plan (CPP) hearings or Small Claims Court (SCC).
Benefit #3 – Employees First Guides and Courses will provide workers with the “know how” to make effective use of their day in “court” and the comfort of knowing that, although they are representing themselves, they are not fighting alone.
Benefit #4 – Employees First Guides and Courses will help workers who want to hire a lawyer, choose the right lawyer based on their specific needs not on fear.
Benefit #5 – Employees First Guides and Courses will provide all of the benefits set out above in a low cost and accessible manner, giving everyday workers a meaningful opportunity to gain important insight into options and strategies for protecting their rights in the workplace.
To be clear, Employees First Guides and Courses are nothing like other “do it yourself” or “self help” legal kits. Each Guide is written or Course is presented from a worker’s perspective – from your perspective – and includes information that employers, and the lawyers that represent them, would rather you not know. Because the Guides are written and the Courses are delivered with workers in mind, they focus exclusively on the spaces in which battles between employers and their employees most often occur, like the Small Claims Court (SCC), the Ministry of Labour (MOL), the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB), the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO), the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT), Employment Insurance (EI) hearings and Canada Pension Plan (CPP) hearings. Franklin Law is interested in understanding what workers want information about. If you’d like to see Franklin Law develop a Guide or Course around a specific topic, please let us know.
Wrongful Dismissal Action: Ron Franklin recently represented a personal care worker who was fired. With Mr. Franklin’s support, the worker was able to resolve the matter and bring closure to an emotionally taxing dispute.
