Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
The Accessibility Standards for Customer Service require employers to provide accessible customer service to persons with disabilities. In order to comply with the legislation, all businesses and organizations providing goods or services to the public with at least one employee in Ontario must meet several requirements by January 1, 2012. What we gathered at our most recent AODA seminar is that employers are very concerned about the training aspect of the customer service obligations.
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Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
Do your managers and front line workers have accurate facts about human rights issues? A number of conversations I have had with workers lately inform me that many people allow their emotions to overwhelm the facts. The misunderstandings that flow from this emotional response can lead to costly violations of the law for your organization.
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Friday, November 18th, 2011
A hospital employee faced complaints of workplace harassment from co-workers, and the hospital imposed discipline on him, including a demotion. The employee’s union subsequently filed a grievance with the labour relations board. The hospital retained the services of an independent outside investigator who was also a practicing lawyer. When the union requested access to the investigation report, the hospital claimed solicitor-client privilege, and refused to hand it over…
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Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
Twice in the last month while conducting training sessions, I have had a workshop participant insist that their workers could NOT file a claim directly with the HRTO because the workers are members of a union. The workers must, they have insisted, file a grievance and settle their human rights claim via the labour relations process. A review of the law reveals the above is simply NOT the case.
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Friday, October 28th, 2011
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently decided that an employee was wrongfully dismissed and entitled to $20,363 in damages. The problem was that the damage award was made against two companies that were no longer in operation and without assets to pay the judgment. A related company that did have assets to pay the award was found not to be a common employer and was thus not liable.
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Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
The Accessibility Standards for Customer Service require employers with 20 or more employees to document policies. The Integrated Accessibility Standards require employers to document policies and multi-year accessibility plans if they have 50 or more employees. So smaller organizations might breathe a sigh of relief knowing that they don’t have to document and keep track of their accessibility policies and plans under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).
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Friday, October 21st, 2011
The Ontario Labour Relations Board has provided what some believe to be the most significant legal interpretation yet of workplace harassment and employer reprisal in the context of the recently enacted Bill 168 amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA). The case, Conforti v. Investia Financial Services Inc., 2011, was decided on September 23, 2011.
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Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
Most employers are aware that any dismissed employee has a duty to mitigate. Usually, this duty arises in the determination of an appropriate severance payment to an employee. Where an employee contests the severance, the duty to mitigate will undoubtedly apply as part of the matrix of calculations to be determined.
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Monday, September 26th, 2011
Hey Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Ontario, PEI and Yukon! You’re going to the polls soon to elect new governments (or to re-elect new versions of old ones). It is not always easy to see how elections make a difference in daily life, so it might not seem very important, but different governments make different choices with respect to public services, economic management, crime prevention and the environment, among many other things. If you think of something that is important to you, or that you enjoy doing, the government probably has some influence over it.
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Friday, September 16th, 2011
Most Ontario residents are already aware of the recent controversy that has brought immigration to the forefront of the upcoming provincial election. It started with the Ontario Liberal pledge to offer tax credits of up to $10,000.00 to employers who hire new immigrants in Ontario who have been here for five years or less. Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak responded by calling it an “affirmative action” program.
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Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
A recent labour arbitrator’s decision—to uphold the City of Kingston’s right to terminate a 28-year employee for issuing a verbal threat against a co-worker—was based in large part on the arbitrator’s view that “the classification of threatening language as workplace violence” under the Occupational Health and Safety Act represents a “clear and significant change” to the law in Ontario.
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Monday, September 12th, 2011
The next provincial election in Ontario is scheduled for Thursday, October 6, 2011. Employers have certain obligations to employees under the Ontario Election Act. On September 7, 2011, the month-long campaign for voters’ hearts and minds was officially underway. Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty asked Lt.-Gov. David C. Onley to officially end the 39th legislative session and sign the election writ. That formality now complete, the lawn signs are coming out and political parties in Ontario have kicked their campaigns into high gear.
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Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011
I didn’t know Jack Layton personally. Like many Canadians–particularly Torontonians, I have met him a few times and and shook his hand at public appearances. His legacy for the readers of First Reference Talks is significant. He was a leader.
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Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
Building on the existing Family Medical Leave under the Employment Standards Act, the Ontario government is planning to expand the protected leave from work by allowing caregivers to spend more time with family members who cannot care for themselves because of serious injury or illness including cancer or stroke.
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Thursday, July 28th, 2011
On July 15, 2011, several workers showed up to work as usual at IQT Solutions, only to be told that their employer had unexpectedly shut down its Canadian operations: three call centres, one in Ontario and two in Quebec. About 1,200 IQT employees were suddenly unemployed with no final paycheque, vacation pay or notice of termination.
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