September 2024 Workplace HR Recap & News - Sept 30, 2024
Enjoy our latest edition of Workplace Recap for Canadian employers:
- Legislation Updates
- HR News
- Case Law Round-Up (recent employment-related court cases)
September 2024 Headlines
- Ontario Minimum wage increase to $17.20 effective October 01.
- Which Canadian cities have the most people working from home?
- August unemployment rate increased to 6.6% from 6.4%.
- London Drugs employee jailed 2 years for stealing $2 million in high-end electronics.
- Nearly 300 CRA employees fired for inappropriately claiming CERB.
- Amazon announces 5-Day Return to Office Mandate.
- Teen worker hair caught in Blizzard machine. Dairy Queen fined $40k.
- Canada Post suspends workers for refusal to deliver 'child sex-change ban' flyer.
- PWC UK to begin tracking employee work locations.
- Why are Canadians less satisfied with their lives? StatCan Report
- Ontario Govt to audit school board after $40k retreat.
- Jobs that may & may not survive in the AI boom: StatsCan Report
- Should workers create & use WhatsApp Groups as a business communication Tool?
- Alberta invests over $1 million in labour market research.
- Return-to-office rarely enforced despite widespread adoption: CBRE report
- Changes to Canada's new limits on temporary foreign workers are now in effect.
- Union members protest as Ottawa's return-to-office mandate takes effect.
- BC Supreme Court awards 12 months notice After 2.5 Years in new job - induced from 27 years prior service.
- Takeaways for BC Tribunal determining signed UBC termination release unenforceable.
- Dismissed worker declines 2 job offers, loses 24-month notice entitlement.
- Canadian public servant receives over $1.5M settlement over discrimination.
Legislation Updates
Ontario Minimum wage increase to $17.20 effective October 01.
Reminder! The Ontario government is increasing the minimum wage from $16.55 per hour to $17.20, effective October 1, 2024. This 3.9 per cent annualized wage increase is based on the Ontario Consumer Price Index (CPI) and brings Ontario’s minimum wage to the second highest in Canada.
HR News
Which Canadian cities have the most people working from home?
Urban areas topped the list of having the most work-from-home or hybrid workers, with Ottawa ranking first, followed by Gatineau, Toronto, Quebec and Montreal. Wood Buffalo, Moose Jaw and Prince Alberta reported having the least amount of employees working from home, or in a hybrid model.
August unemployment rate increased to 6.6% from 6.4%.
London Drugs employee jailed 2 years for stealing $2 million in high-end electronics.
Carlos Cenon Santos, a former London Drugs employee, was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting to stealing $2 million worth of merchandise from the store over a period of five years. He pocketed as much as $1 million by selling pilfered high-end items on Craigslist.
Nearly 300 CRA employees fired for inappropriately claiming CERB.
Almost 300 Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) employees who improperly applied for and received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) are no longer with the agency, according to the latest numbers from an internal review.
The agency launched the review last year to identify those who inappropriately got CERB payments while CRA employees. It identified 600 cases for further investigation.
Amazon announces 5-Day Return to Office Mandate.
Amazon, the second-largest U.S. employer behind Walmart, sent a memo to corporate employees requiring them to be in the office five days a week. In response, several employees have expressed disagreement with this decision.
Teen worker hair caught in Blizzard machine. Dairy Queen fined $40k.
A teenager suffered a serious neck injury, was hospitalized for two weeks and was forced to take online courses for a semester while she recovered with the help of neck brace.
Canada Post suspends workers for refusal to deliver 'child sex-change ban' flyer.
A Canada Post worker says she was suspended after refusing to deliver flyers that compare gender-affirming medical care to child mutilation.
The flyer from Campaign Life Coalition, an anti-abortion group based in Hamilton, Ont., calls for a ban on "child sex-change."
Shannon Aitchison said she is the mother of a transgender adult and given that gender-affirming surgery is only available to people aged 18 and above, believes the wording of the flyers is harmful and discriminatory against transgender people.
PWC UK to begin tracking employee work locations.
The consultancy PwC has told its employees it is going to begin tracking their working locations to ensure that all workers spend “a minimum of three days a week” in the office or at client sites.
In a memo sent to its 26,000 UK employees, the big four accounting firm announced that it will start monitoring how often employees work from home in the same way it monitors how many chargeable hours they work.
The clampdown on remote working, requiring partners and staff to spend 60% of their time with clients or in the office, will take effect from January. PwC described its new stance as a “shift” from a “hybrid working balance” towards “more in-person work”.
Each worker will be sent information about their “individual working location data” every month and this data will also be shared with employees’ career coaches at PwC, according to the Financial Times.
Why are Canadians less satisfied with their lives? StatCan Report
According to StatCan, the level of life satisfaction for younger Canadians between the ages of 25 and 34 has been declining since 2021.
“By 2024, fewer than 4 in 10 (36.9 per cent) of these adults were highly satisfied with their lives,” per Statistics Canada.
Ontario Govt to audit school board after $40k retreat.
Ontario Education Minister Jill Dunlop said the province will investigate the financial operations of London's Thames Valley District School Board, after it was revealed that 18 senior officials spent almost $40,000 at a three-day planning retreat in Toronto in August.
This comes as the board faces a $7.6-million budget deficit and has made cuts that will affect students and teachers.
Jobs that may & may not survive in the AI boom: StatsCan Report
The Winners
According to the study, jobs that require higher levels of education, in sectors like healthcare and teaching, are more complementary to AI technologies.
Notable professions in this category include family physicians, teachers and electrical engineers. Twenty-nine per cent of Canadian workers made up this category in May 2021, says the study.
Results showed that AI may be more likely to transform the jobs of highly educated workers than those with less schooling, with 50 per cent of workers holding bachelor's degrees or higher considered both highly exposed and highly complementary to AI.
The Losers
Computer programmers and office workers—roles traditionally seen as secure in a tech-driven economy—are among the most vulnerable, according to the StatCan analysis.
The study defines these sectors as “high exposure and low complementarity,” indicating that AI could replace much of the work currently done by humans in these fields.
About 31 per cent of employees in Canada fell into this group as of May 2021.
While these occupations perform complex tasks, AI is advancing to perform these tasks just as effectively.
Should workers create & use WhatsApp Groups as a business communication Tool?
A recent ruling by Nunavut's information and privacy commissioner has raised concerns about the use of WhatsApp by employees for conducting official business.
The case involves a government employee whose relationship with the Department of Education’s senior management had deteriorated, leading them to take a leave of absence. The employee then filed a comprehensive access request in January 2024, seeking records related to their employment from multiple individuals and divisions within the department. The request covered “all forms of communication” and spanned a period beginning in July 2023.
The review highlighted a broader issue with the Department of Education’s use of WhatsApp to conduct official business, a practice the Commissioner strongly discouraged. The Commissioner expressed concerns about the lack of transparency and accountability associated with using a third-party messaging app, noting that “WhatsApp messages do not go through GN servers. They are not accessible to the GN if the employee dies, resigns, goes on leave, or for any other reason is unwilling or unable to cooperate.”
The use of WhatsApp complicates the records management process and undermines the integrity of the ATIPPA process, which relies on good faith from government employees. The Commissioner recommended that the Department of Education “discontinue the use of WhatsApp by senior management” and instead use Microsoft Teams, a messaging app that is supported by the government and ensures that communications remain accessible and can be properly archived.
Alberta invests over $1 million in labour market research.
Alberta’s new Alberta Centre for Labour Market Research (ACLMR), officially launched in September, is designed as the first stop for Canadian labour market expertise and high-quality, real-time information and research,
The centre will empower employers, jobseekers 'with critical information they need to navigate our dynamic labour market' Their website will provide high-quality, real-time data to forecast hiring trends on the horizon.
Return-to-office rarely enforced despite widespread adoption: CBRE report
- A CBRE survey found that 80% of companies have RTO policies, but only 17% strictly enforce them, leading to a gap between employer expectations and employee behavior.
- 33% of corporate real estate executives are aiming to boost in-office attendance in 2024, driven by the need for better space utilization and employee engagement.
- Office visits are gradually returning to pre-pandemic levels, with cities like Miami and NYC seeing significant recoveries, especially with stricter RTO policies.
Changes to Canada's new limits on temporary foreign workers are now in effect.
Going forward:
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The feds will stop processing Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs), specifically those in the TFW program's low-wage stream, in areas of the country with an unemployment rate of six per cent or higher. By refusing to process these forms, the government will prevent employers, in most cases, from hiring TFWs as long as unemployment remains high in their area.
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Employers are now prohibited from hiring more than 10 per cent of their workforce through Canada's TFW program, a percentage applied, as above, to the low-wage stream. Previously, that cap was set at 20 per cent.
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A participant in the TFW program may only be employed in a low-wage job for one year, reduced from the prior limit of two years.
Union members protest as Ottawa's return-to-office mandate takes effect.
Effective September 09, Workers expected to be in office at least three times a week. Thousands of union members took to the street in protest, determined to defend telework and the future of work in Canada.
PSAC members united with members from the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE), and the Association of Canadian Financial Officers (ACFO) at nationwide protests to contest the government’s policy and fight for a fair approach to telework that puts workers first.
Case Law Round Up
BC Supreme Court awards 12 months notice After 2.5 Years in new job - induced from 27 years prior service.
This case sets out the type of facts that allows the Court to find that inducement took place. In determining that inducement took place, the notice period seems to a compromise between his 27 years prior service ( which the Judge said would easily get him 18 to 24 months notice ) and his short 2.5 years current service ( which the Judge said would get him 5 months notice ).
Takeaways for BC Tribunal determining signed UBC termination release unenforceable.
In Jessica Fyffe vs UBC, the BC Tribunal determined that Ms Fyffe's signed termination release after 4 months of employment was unenforceable after Ms Fyffe's alleged that she was emotionally shocked, overwhelmed and confused during the termination meeting.
When offering a dismissed employee additional compensation in exchange for signing a release, employers should ensure that the release is properly drafted to capture all possible legal claims. Employers should bring two representatives to a dismissal meeting, ensure the employee understands they can take the release home to review it prior to signing, and take contemporaneous notes during the meeting. While giving the employee additional time to review the release may result in them not signing, skipping these steps to get a release signed immediately can impact the enforceability of the release later on.
Dismissed worker declines 2 job offers, loses 24-month notice entitlement.
A 67-year-old printing specialist who was terminated during the COVID-19 pandemic has been awarded 24 months’ notice for wrongful dismissal by the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. But the court clawed back the award due to his failure to mitigate his damages, resulting in a final award of just over $3,300.
Canadian public servant receives over $1.5M settlement over discrimination.
In 2007, Hughes went to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, alleging that Transport Canada had discriminated against him on the basis of mental disability and eliminated him from competitions for four jobs he had been seeking.
In 2022, Hughes and the government settled, with the government agreeing to pay him $1.535 million. The details of the settlement only became public recently when there was a court dispute over the implementation of the settlement, Hughes said.
All told, Hughes told National Post, he has been paid around $2.4 million in settlements — potentially one of the largest discrimination payouts in Canadian history.
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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