Topic

This assignment consists of a business case analysis of the employment law issues at Coco's Coffee Shop.

The Facts

Karmen is the owner of an Ottawa-based business called Coco's Coffee Shop. It employs 28 people and has an annual payroll of $447,000.

Karmen recently hired Felipe as the store manager. Felipe was previously employed at the local Starbucks for 8 years. He is 30 years old and has no formal education. After being aggressively recruited by Karmen for several months, he finally accepted her offer of employment. He started at Coco's Coffee Shop on January 1 at a salary $52,000 annually, plus 1% sales commission and receives employee health benefits.

All employees are asked to sign employment contracts at some point during their first few weeks of employment. The business pays most of the employees, minimum wage. The only exceptions are Hussein and Paolo, who are paid a shift premium of $3.00 more per hour when they unload the coffee beans from the truck on Monday and Wednesday nights.

In the employee policy manual, it clearly states that employees are to greet customers as soon as they walk in the door by saying "Hello, welcome to Coco's Coffee Shop!" The employee manual is located in the stock room on the top shelf of a cabinet. Felipe notices that Paolo has not been greeting customers as stated in the manual. Felipe is annoyed that Paolo is not following company policy and decides to address this issue during the next monthly employee meeting.

During that meeting, Felipe addresses many of the issues affecting the business, including upcoming salary decreases. Business has been a little slow, so wages will be reduced by 30%, effective immediately. The employees are very angry. Because of their reaction, Felipe forgets to mention the problem with Paolo not properly greeting customers, but takes note to mention in the following month. The next day, Hussein tells Felipe that he will no longer work at the espresso machine because he feels that aliens have taken it over and that it is not safe. Felipe feels that Hussein is being ridiculous and orders him to return to work immediately. Hussein becomes very angry and shouts in front of customers and other employees: "Since you've been here this has become a terrible place to work - I am out of here!" Hussein throws his apron at Felipe and storms out the door. Hussein returns the following day for his scheduled shift.

The following week, Karmen receives a formal notice that employees have filed complaints about various statutory rights being violated. Karmen asks Felipe to dismiss all employees that have made these complaints. After he does so, Karmen then terminates Felipe's employment.

To complete this assignment you should identify and offer solutions to 5 employment law issues raised in this scenario.

Course Learning Requirements and/or Essential Employability Skills

This assignment is related to the following course learning requirements and/or essential employability skills:

• Communicate clearly, concisely and correctly in the written, spoken and visual form that fulfills the purpose and meets the needs of the audience;

• Apply a systematic approach to solve problems;

• Use a variety of thinking skills to anticipate and solve problems; and

• Analyze, evaluate and apply relevant information from a variety of sources.