HReview Breakfast Seminar Archive:

Workplace accommodation can be a challenge for even the most seasoned HR professional.

Join us as we discuss some of the most common (and challenging) accommodation issues. Topics include:

1. Accommodation Basics
   • What is “accommodation” under human rights law?
   • What is the meaning of “undue hardship?”
   • What are the obligations of the workplace parties, including the employee and union?

2. Disability Accommodation
   • Addressing mental health accommodation issues, including those associated with returning to the office/workplace.

3. Family Status Accommodation
   • What are an employee’s obligations in the context of childcare accommodation?
   • What information is an employer entitled to seek?
   • Balancing return-to-the-office/work with childcare accommodation.

4. Drugs and Alcohol in the Workplace
   • Case law update on accommodation of a substance use disorder.
   • Can an employee be dismissed for failing to participate in a drug or alcohol test?
   • How to effectively use a last chance agreement.

2024 ushered in many changes to the employment and labour landscape in Ontario and across Canada.

Join us as we discuss how these changes impact employers. Topics include:

1. Legislative Update
   • Changes to the Ontario Employment Standards Act under the Working for Workers Four Act
   • Changes to the federal Canada Labour Code regarding rules for termination
   • Cross-Canada update on key employment-related legislative amendments including pay equity and pay transparency legislation

2. Labour Law Update
   • Bill C-58 amendments to the Canada Labour Code regarding replacement workers and maintenance of activities during a work stoppage
   • Constitutional law decisions in the labour relations context

3. Workplace Safety and Insurance Update
   • Recent changes to rates and benefits
   • Update regarding communicable disease, traumatic and chronic mental stress claims
   • How Canadian workers’ compensation boards are responding to the changing nature of work
   • New classification for temporary help agencies to come into effect on January 1, 2025

4. Looking forward to 2025
   • Changes to the Ontario Employment Standards Act under the Working for Workers Five Act
   • Potential changes to privacy obligations under the Digital Charter Implementation Act
   • Employment related class action lawsuits

Join us as we discuss:

1. The new age

• • Union organizing strategies in 2023/2024

2. Early signs of internal organizing

• • Immediate steps employers should consider

3. An employer’s right to speak

• • How to communicate within the bounds of the law

4. The unexpected application

• • What to do when you receive an Application for Certification

5. Running a successful campaign

• • It is never too late to create engaged employees so they realize they don’t need a union

6. Update from the Ontario Labour Relations Board, Canada Industrial Relations Board, and select decisions from across the country

• • Current union activity and trends by industry

Workers’ compensation and human rights often intersect, causing no end of confusion and, sometimes,
angst for employers.

Join us as we unpack and discuss:

1. Workers’ Compensation and Human Rights

• • Overview of basic obligations

2. Intersection of Workers’ Compensation and Human Rights Decisions

• • Jurisdictional issues
  • Procedure for parallel cases
  • Impact of a decision in one forum on the other forum

3. Return to Work

• • Re-employment obligations and discrimination
  • Suitable work and accommodation
  • Frustration of contract

4. Possible Pitfalls and Practical Tips

Workplace health and safety issues, if not appropriately managed, can be a source of significant liability for an employer.

Join us as we discuss these important topics, including best practices to reduce risk:

1. Workplace Safety and Insurance (Ontario) Update

• • Recent changes to rates and benefits.
  • Amendments to the WSIB accident reporting process and how this may impact an employer.
  • New WSIB policy on communicable disease.
  • Update on chronic mental stress claims.
  • Practical tips to manage claims and reduce liability.

2. Health and Safety (Ontario) Update

• • Recent trends in charges and fines.
  • The difference between a health and safety inspection and investigation – what every employer should know. 
  • Impact of recent Supreme Court of Canada decision on construction site owners.
  • Due diligence in health and safety – practical tips to minimize risk.

2023 ushered in many important changes to the employment and labour landscape in Ontario and across Canada.

Join us as we discuss how these changes impact employers. Topics include:

1. Legislative Update

• • Licensing requirements for temporary help agencies and recruiters in Ontario
  • Cross-Canada update on key employment-related legislative amendments.

2. Labour Law Update

• • Update on Bill 124 and other wage restraint legislation and related case law.
  • Recent COVID-19 decisions (mandatory vaccination, religious exemptions). 

3. Human Rights Update

• • The role of unconscious bias in race-based discrimination cases.
  • Family status discrimination update.
  • Recent case law on workplace investigations.

4. Trends in Employment and Independent Contractor Agreements

• • Enforceability of termination provisions.
  • Independent contractors and the duty to mitigate.

Join us as we discuss:

1. Mental health and substance use

• • Duty to inquire
  • Investigating suspected impairment
  • Requests for medical information

2. Accommodation under human rights legislation

• • Definition of “disability”
  • Employer’s duty to accommodate
  • Employee’s duty to co-operate

3. WSIB traumatic mental stress claims

4. Discipline and termination

• • When is behaviour linked to a disability?
  • Last chance agreements
  • Frustration of contract
  • Mitigating risk

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the way we live and work.  Now, more than ever, employees work in a remote or hybrid work arrangement.  However, with this shift comes new and altered legal risks and challenges for employers.

Join us as we discuss:

1. Cross-Canada or International Relocation

• • Legal risks if a remote worker relocates, temporarily or permanently (which laws apply).
  • How to prevent or manage employee relocation issues.

2. Performance Management

• • Use of electronic monitoring to manage employee performance.
  • Discipline and termination for time theft and other remote work performance issues. 

3. Health and Safety

• • When will occupational health and safety and workers’ compensation legislation apply to a remote worker?
  • Bullying and harassment in an online workplace.

4. Employment Standards and Human Rights

• • How to ensure a remote worker complies with employment standards requirements (e.g., hours of work, meal breaks, etc.).
  • Remote or hybrid work as a form of human rights accommodation.

More than ever, employers are facing high damage claims for post-termination conduct, and a heightened risk their employment agreement termination language will be found unenforceable.

Join us as we discuss:

1. Employment Contract Considerations

• • Recent caselaw on the enforceability of termination clauses.
  • When will ancillary terms jeopardize a termination clause?
  • Risks associated with the termination of a fixed term employment agreement.

2. An Increase in “Bad Faith” Claims Related to the Manner of Termination

• • What should (and should not) be included in the termination letter.
  • How to minimize the risk of reputational damage to an employee post-termination.
  • When will delay in the payment of statutory entitlements increase an employer’s potential liability?

3. Post-Termination Income and its Impact on Damage Awards

• • An update on the duty to mitigate.
  • The impact of Employment Insurance (EI) and Canada Emergency Relief Benefits (CERB) payments on a damage award.

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Inflation, labour shortages and workplaces returning to a “new normal” have increased interest in unionization in some private sector industries and brought new challenges to the collective bargaining table.

Join us as we discuss:

1. Current Unionization and Wage Trends

• The impact of the current economy on unionization rates in the private sector.
• The impact of the labour shortage and inflation on wage demands.
• Creative solutions to increase wages and manage expectations.

2. COVID Clauses

• Recent trends related to sick leave and other COVID-19 inspired provisions.
• Remote work and the collective agreement. 

3. Legislative and Caselaw Update

• Recent interest arbitration case law.
• Update on wage restraint legislation across Canada.

4. Practical Tips for the Bargaining Table

• Virtual vs. in-person bargaining (and when there may be an opportunity for both).
• What to do when employees don’t ratify a collective agreement.
• When to use (or avoid) a final offer vote.