October 2024 Workplace HR Recap & News - Oct 31 2024
Enjoy our latest edition of Workplace Recap for Canadian employers:
October 2024 Legislation Updates
October 2024 HR News
- Eleven teachers suspended over allegations of ‘toxic’ climate at Montreal primary school.
- Majority of Canadian HR professionals cite workplace harassment as a growing concern - 28% lack prevention policies.
- Canada's ‘lack of ambition’ problem. The "600 lbs Beaver in the Room".
- Doctors over-burdened as public servants seek medical notes to support work-from-home-requests.
- B.C. senior DEI Manager sues for wrongful dismissal over Gaza war post.
- Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver make top 25 Global Work Life Balance list.
- Public servants’ union wants Parliament to investigate return-to-office mandate.
- 1 in 3 employees are working side jobs on company time. Half of Canadian employers lack rules to prevent it.
- Nearly a quarter of Canadians work in the gig economy: poll.
- 3.45% salary growth in Canada is expected to outpace inflation for the first time in 4 years.
- Labour tribunal rejects Amazon's appeal against Quebec warehouse unionization
October 2024 Case Law Round Up
- Arbitrator rules that Post-65 LTD termination coverage is not "bona fide".
- Ontario court throws out employer's lawsuit against former employee and client alleging confidential information disclosure & unfair competition.
- Ontario Human Rights Tribunal decision: Employers not obliged to investigate reports of harassment made by a person who is no longer an employee.
- B.C. Human Rights Tribunal dismisses white employee’s discrimination claim.
Legislation Updates
Canada’s pharmacare bill is now law.
Pharmacare bill covering diabetes, birth control medications passes Senate – Oct 11, 2024.
That means many will soon have access to more medications, including those for diabetes and contraception, which are deemed essential and can cost hundreds or thousands out of pocket each year, though specific provincial agreements are still in negotiation.
HR News
Eleven teachers suspended over allegations of ‘toxic’ climate at Montreal primary school.
In a move it described as unprecedented, the Centre de services scolaires de Montréal said its director general asked administrators to immediately suspend the teachers at Bedford school in the city’s multicultural Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood.
It said Isabelle Gélinas made the decision Thursday evening after a provincial investigative committee passed on the names of educators who allegedly subjected students to violence as well as claims that autism does not exist.
The report described the group of problematic teachers as being of North African descent, some of whom attended a local mosque together. It said a representative from the mosque met one year with the school’s administration, explaining “the importance of having good relations with the Muslims of the neighbourhood and of the school.” Witnesses told the government investigators that the local Muslim community carried a “strong influence” on several of the school’s staff members.
However, the report mentioned that there were staff members of North African descent who opposed the way the “dominant clan” was acting.
Majority of Canadian HR professionals cite workplace harassment as a growing concern - 28% lack prevention policies.
A new report from Traliant offers insights into the state of workplace harassment in Canada. The survey revealed that while a majority of HR professionals (61%) feel workplace harassment is a growing issue in their organization, more than a quarter (28%) of organizations do not have a comprehensive workplace harassment prevention policy that meets all legal requirements.
- 26% of organizations are putting themselves at risk by not providing harassment prevention training to all employees and all levels.
- 28% of Canadian HR professionals are not providing training to employees at a frequency of least every two years as recommended by case law.
- 52% of respondents said their workplace harassment reporting processes were not clear or standardized, preventing employees from coming forward and allowing harassing behavior to continue and escalate.
Canada's ‘lack of ambition’ problem. The "600 lbs Beaver in the Room".
Canada's industry minister has thrown his support behind a call from one of Shopify Inc.'s leaders for the country to get more ambitious.
He was speaking at the Elevate tech conference in Toronto, where the tech community has been gathering since Tuesday to discuss trends in the industry and beyond.
Among the buzziest talks was one from Shopify president Harley Finkelstein, who told the audience on opening night that he had noted a lack of ambition in Canada that he likened to a "600-pound beaver in the room."
Adding ambition to the Canadian psyche is "unequivocally necessary," so the country doesn't become a nation of branch plants and instead fosters massive companies at home, the leader of the Ottawa-based e-commerce software giant said.
He added that the current lack of ambition had left Canadian companies with a reputation for being acquired, while U.S. businesses are known for being the dominant "acquirees."
Doctors over-burdened as public servants seek medical notes to support work-from-home-requests.
Family doctors in Ottawa are seeing an influx of public servants looking for medical notes to support work-from-home requests, putting added strain on an already overburdened health-care system.
B.C. senior DEI Manager sues for wrongful dismissal over Gaza war post.
Amy Blanding of Prince George filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver seeking damages, alleging her employer’s response to complaints she was antisemitic, pro-Hamas and pro-terrorism forced her out of her job.
Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver make top 25 Global Work Life Balance list.
Public servants’ union wants Parliament to investigate return-to-office mandate.
One of the unions representing Canada’s public servants is calling on Parliament to investigate the decision behind the three-day return-to-office mandate which took effect last month.
1 in 3 employees are working side jobs on company time. Half of Canadian employers lack rules to prevent it.
Twenty-nine percent of Canadian job seekers admit working a side hustle on company time, and while employers are concerned about workers' divided attention, half of companies have no policies prohibiting it, according to a newly released Express Employment Professionals-Harris Poll.
Nearly a quarter of Canadians work in the gig economy: poll.
A poll conducted in collaboration with the Angus Reid Institute found that nearly a quarter of respondents participate in gig work, defined as short-term jobs or tasks that do not guarantee steady work.
Statistics Canada defines "gig workers" as those who enter more casual work arrangements with employers, like short-term contracts or agreements to complete specific one-off tasks.
The survey found younger workers are more likely to participate in gig work, with 30 per cent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 participating in the gig economy.
About 23 per cent of respondents between 35 and 54 said they were gig workers. Of respondents over 55, only 16 per cent said they participated.
Labour researchers says it's a sign traditional jobs might not be keeping up with financial pressures.
3.45% salary growth in Canada is expected to outpace inflation for the first time in 4 years.
The highest projected increases for 2025 are expected in the same industries that led salary growth in 2024: 4.13 per cent in construction, 3.92 per cent in real estate and 3.9 per cent in business services. Meanwhile, the lowest salary increase of 2.75 per cent is expected in public administration, supplanting information technology at the bottom.
The data also shows regional variations in provincial salary projections, with a 3.6 per cent increase expected in British Columbia, 3.54 per cent in Alberta and 3.5 per cent in New Brunswick leading the way. Nova Scotia, on the other hand, has consistently shown the lowest projected increases at 2.94 per cent for both 2024 and 2025. Quebec, which had strong salary growth of 3.85 per cent in 2024, is expecting growth to slow to 3.41 per cent in 2025.
Labour tribunal rejects Amazon's appeal against Quebec warehouse unionization
A Quebec labour tribunal has dismissed Amazon's objection to the unionization of workers at its Laval warehouse. Amazon argued that union certification should be revoked as it was obtained through a card-signing process instead of a secret ballot, which the company claims infringes on workers' rights to freedom of association. The decision upholds the union status of over 200 Amazon employees, marking a milestone as the first unionized Amazon workforce in Canada.
Case Law Round Up
Arbitrator rules that Post-65 LTD termination coverage is not "bona fide".
The case could encourage others to challenge terms that might have otherwise been seen as bona fide.
The BC Human Rights Code prohibits age-based discrimination in relation to employment, but 13(3)(b) of the Code creates an exception to the prohibition for a “bona fide group or employee insurance plan”. The Faculty Association argued that the LTD plan discriminated on the basis of age. Importantly, during the grievance process the Faculty Association surrendered its demand for the LTD benefits to be provided without any age-based distinction and agreed to focus the challenge to an exclusion from age 65 to 70.
Termination of LTD coverage at age 65 is a common feature in LTD plans across the country, so the arbitrator’s decision that the plan was not “bona fide” is an important one to be aware of for any sponsor of such a program.
The arbitrator that their decision supported the view that:
- With demographic changes and life expectancy increasing, work histories are lengthening particularly in the education sector;
- Careers tend to start later, and it takes longer for workers to secure a permanent position;
- Significant numbers of those who work past age 64 do so for financial security;
- There is a correlation between gender (women) and those who work past age 64 particularly for the “baby boomer” women who started their careers at a later date and for those women who left the workforce for family responsibilities and who may have less choice about when to retire;
- The presumption that LTD benefits will be replaced by an un-reduced pension that the individual can draw is not a reliable one and does not reflect the career patterns that we see in the workforce.
Ontario court throws out employer's lawsuit against former employee and client alleging confidential infomation disclosure & unfair competition.
An Ontario court has dismissed a series of claims brought by an employer alleging that a former chef misused confidential information, breached his contract, and unfairly competed against it when the worker quit to work directly for one of its clients.
Ontario Human Rights Tribunal decision: Employers not obliged to investigate reports of harassment made by a person who is no longer an employee.
In Rougoor v Goodlife Fitness Centres Inc., 2024 HRTO 312, the former employee claimed that she had reported that harassment both before and after leaving her job. However, the Tribunal determined that based on the evidence and testimony provided to them, the employee only reported the harassment six months after she had stopped working for the employer.
This case offers a lesson on the importance of careful record keeping, whether you are an employee or an employer. In this case, had the employee been able to present evidence that she had made her complaint while she was still employed, the Tribunal may have determined that the employer had failed in their legal duty to investigate.
From an employer perspective, this case also demonstrates the importance not only of record keeping, but also of the importance of having policies in place to promote a harassment and discrimination-free workplace, as the Tribunal made note that having those policies in place contributed to a finding that on the totality of evidence available, the employer had not failed in their legal duties.
B.C. Human Rights Tribunal dismisses white employee’s discrimination claim.
The complainant, a bartender who identified as Caucasian or white, alleged that his employment was terminated in order to hire a Chinese employee. To support his allegation of discrimination, the complainant relied on the fact that, on the same day the respondent terminated his employment, a Chinese worker started working in his place.
The respondent denied that it terminated the complainant’s employment on the basis of his race or colour or any other protected ground. The respondent maintained that it dismissed the complainant from employment following an incident in which he put a cash payment for drinks into a tip jar. While the respondent did not deny hiring an Asian employee, who was in fact Taiwanese and not Chinese, it denied replacing the complainant with the new employee.
Melina Laird is Operations Coordinator for ConnectsUs HR, a company that provides tools & resources to quickly set up a Human Resources department.
You can contact her here.
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