HR Law Compliance Steps for Super Busy Employers

Woohoo! Mandatory policies, postings, training, legally enforceable contracts… Actually, no client has ever told us they LOVE thinking through legal compliance for their workplace. Rather, it’s the thing you have to do on top of the other revenue-generating tasks to keep the lights on.

HR Law Compliance Steps for Super Busy Employers

For owner-operator employers, there is often no one to delegate this to. The internet is full of best practices and comprehensive lists of what to do, but it all eats up your time to figure out.

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Equal Pay for Equal Work – Everything You Need to Know About Pay Equity in Your Workplace

Discover your obligations as an Ontario employer under the Pay Equity Act, including understanding equal pay for equal work, applicable exemptions, and the consequences of non-compliance.We’ve all heard about pay equity but what does that actually mean in a workplace? And as an Ontario employer, what are your obligations around reaching and maintaining pay equity? One this is for sure, outside of a huge financial risk, you also do not want to be known as an employer who is not paying their employees equally. Here’s everything you need to know about your obligations under the Pay Equity Act.

What is Pay Equity? 

Pay equity means equal pay for work of equal value. This means employees who perform substantially the same kind of work in the same establishment,  which requires substantially the same skill, effort, and responsibility and under similar working conditions should be compensated equally, regardless of gender. All of these conditions must be met for equal pay for equal work to be required.

But of course, there are some exceptions. Even if all of the above conditions are met, a difference in pay can apply due to seniority (length of service), merit (how well they perform at their jobs), or systems that measure earnings by production or quality (promotions based on exceeding sales, etc.). The difference in rate of pay includes hourly or salary pay rates, overtime pay rates, and commission rates.

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Workplace Law: It Pays To Be Proactive

workplace law advice for employers

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In these challenging times, in the midst of the pandemic, as workplaces re-open, pivot and change, we see the importance and immense value of having strategic employment and workplace law advice. Just a small allocation of thought space and time to being proactive could have changed the outcome of so many situations. We see it now in our firm in many ways. 

Having run a small business for over a decade, I can appreciate that employers are often triaging the urgent demand of finding solutions to client’s needs. Rarely did I have the time or opportunity to “smell the roses” let alone try to proactively anticipate the workplace law needs of my growing organization. However, I now see the critical importance of taking a proactive approach.

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Family Status Accommodation in the Time of COVID-19

Employer obligations to accommodate work refusals under the IDEL

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As workplaces re-open, employers are getting all kinds of objections from employees about coming back to work. Common among these are childcare responsibilities. While some daycares and day camps are operating, things are far from normal. What obligation do employers have to accommodate refusals to come back to work due to childcare responsibilities? 

Employee Protection Under the Infectious Disease Emergency Leave

In Ontario, employees who claim they cannot work due to childcare responsibilities may have job protection under the Infectious Disease Emergency Leave (IDEL). The IDEL provides job protection to employees who need to take a leave from work to care for their children whose school or daycare is closed because of COVID-19. The Ministry of Labour Guide on this leave also includes day camps being cancelled as a reason for the leave so we can be sure that the protection is meant to be expansive. 

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New Federal Anti-Workplace Violence and Harassment Requirements

workplace violence and harassment

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When it comes to workplace violence and prevention, the federal government has been playing catch up with the provinces. Starting in 2017, the feds have been working on amendments to the Canada Labour Code (CLC) to more fully address workplace violence and harassment. While Bill-65 – snappily named An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code (harassment and violence), the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act and the Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 1 – establishing the amendments was passed in 2018, the changes had not come into effect nor had a date for their coming into effect been announced. New regulations were announced on June 24, 2020, which provide employers with more details regarding what will be required of them and setting out an effective date of January 1, 2021, for the changes. There are also requirements that employers need to meet before January 1, 2021. More details can be found on the government site here.  

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Do I have to hire a super expensive external investigator? Maybe. Maybe not.

internal vs external workplace investigations

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So you’ve received a harassment complaint from one employee about another employee. What do you do? Do you have to investigate?  Can you use your common sense and just discipline? Is the complaint clearly BS in the first place? What if the complaint is about a break-the-company level fraud by your CFO?

Workplace investigations are usually an unwelcome but necessary business diversion. Many employers would rather avoid them and will attempt, or seek counsel’s validation for, a quick and dirty alternative such as a quick-release termination of the alleged wrongdoer or relocation of the complainant. But these are not alternatives to investigating, are never the upfront solution and often fail to satisfy the legal obligation to properly investigate. These responses are more likely to expose an employer to greater liability.

A complaint of workplace misconduct needs to move quickly, and yet is no time for fast thinking. Employers should instead think carefully about the substance of the complaint, the impact on the involved parties and the business fallout if their response is the wrong one. 

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