Joel Gomes, CHRL (2018)

Beneplan HR Conference, November 2017

The Changing HR LandscapeIs Your Business Ready?

What We’ll Cover Today

• Did You Know? Change is afoot!

• Future Changes To Ontario’s Employment & Labour Laws

• Compliance and Consequence

• Is Your Business Ready? Tips for Preparedness

• Client Case Analysis and Learnings

Did you know? Change is Afoot!• EI waiting period has been reduced from two weeks to one week,

effective January 1, 2017

• Minimum wage in Ontario has changed to $11.60/hour effective October 1, 2017

• Bill 148, the “Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act 2017”, introduced in legislature on June 1, 2017. Second reading complete and referred to Standing Committee on Finance & Economic Affairs

• By all accounts the bill will pass and once that happens, all proposals within the bill become statute as of January 1st 2018.

• Minimum wage in Ontario will change to $14 an hour on January 1, 2018 and to $15 an hour by January 1, 2019. These changes will make Ontario the second province (Alberta was the first) to publicly target a $15 minimum wage.

Ontario Minimum Wage Changes

Future Changes - January 2018

• Vacation Entitlement Increase: After 5 yrs service with same employer, minimum vacation entitlement for workers would rise from two to three weeks/yr. Vacation pay records need to be maintained by employer for 5 yrsversus current 3 yrs requirement.

• Public Holiday Pay: Calculation changes that refer to regular wages in the pay period before the holiday divided by the days worked (rather than a four-week period of regular wages divided by 20)

• Overtime Pay: The Mixed Hourly Rate (a weighted average established for employees with multiple rates) would be eliminated in favor of paying overtime at the rate of the work performed after the weekly threshold is reached (44 hours)

Future Changes - January 2018

• Personal Emergency Leave: Instead of limiting this leave to organizations with more than 50 employees, ALL workers will now be given 10 personal emergency leave days per year.

• Personal Emergency Leave: A minimum of two days would have to be paid, as opposed to the current state where none are required to be paid.

• Physician’s note: Employees will not have to provide employers with a sick leave note when requesting personal emergency leave.

Future Changes - January 2018

Future Changes - January 2018

Future Changes - January 2018

Changes Jan 2018 – Changes to LRA• Proposed legislation would establish card-based union certification

for the temporary help agency industry, the building services sector

and home care and community services industry.

• It would also make the following changes to the union certification

process:o Eliminate certain conditions for remedial union certification, allowing

unions to more easily get certified when an employer engages in

misconduct that contravenes the LRA.

o Making access to first contract arbitration easier, and also adding an

intensive mediation component to the process.

o Require the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) to address first

contract mediation-arbitration applications before dealing with

displacement and decertification applications.

Changes Jan 2018 – Changes to LRA• (…..contd.)

o Allow unions to access employee lists and certain contact information, provided the union can demonstrate that it has already achieved the support of 20 per cent of employees involved.

o Expressly empower the OLRB to conduct votes outside the workplace, including electronically and by telephone.

o Empower the OLRB to authorize Labour Relations Officers to give directions relating to the voting process and voting arrangements in order to help assure the neutrality of the voting process.

Changes Jan 2018 – Changes to LRA

• (…..contd.)

o Just Cause Protection - protects employees from being disciplined or discharged without just cause in the period between certification & conclusion of a first contract.

o Just Cause Protection - protects employees from being disciplined or discharged without just cause during the period between the date the employees are in a legal strike or lock-out position and the new collective agreement.

o Fines – Increases to maximum fines under the LRA to $5,000 for individuals and $100,000 for organizations (from the current $2,000 for individuals and $25,000 for organizations).

More Future Changes – Jan 2018• Employee scheduling and work locations - Employees would

have the right to request schedule/location changes after having been employed for three months, without fear of reprisal.

• Advance notice - Employees can refuse to accept shifts without repercussion if their employer asks them to work with less than four days' notice (96 hrs minimum).

• Independent contractors - The proposed legislation would prohibit employers from misclassifying employees as "independent contractors." This is intended to address cases where employers improperly treat their employees as if they are self-employed and not entitled to the protections of the ESA.

More Future Changes – Jan 2019

• Call-in pay - three-hour rule - Employees who regularly work more than three hours per day, but upon reporting to work are given less than three hours, must be paid three hours at their regular rate of pay.

• There will not be an option anymore, to pay minimum wage for the minimum daily hours.

AODA Compliance Report Due Dec 2017

• Every three (3) years nonprofits & businesses with 20+ employees

need to complete a compliance report with the Ontario Govt.

confirming their compliance with the AODA.

• For public sector organizations, this must be done every two (2)

years.

• Note:You’ll need your company’s legal name, business number

and the name/ contact information of your certifier (a director or

senior officer with legal authority to say that the report is

complete and accurate).

AODA Compliance Report Due Dec 2017

• In an effort to streamline what has been a challenging process in

the past, now you just have three steps:

o Download the Accessibility Compliance Reporting Form

o Complete it by answering the questions relevant to your

organization’s size and type.

o Submit your completed form, after which you will a

confirmation email that includes an accessible PDF copy of

your report for your files.

ESA Non-Compliance Proposals• Enhancing ESA Enforcement:

o Plans to hire up to 175 more Employment Standards officers. o Launch a program to educate both employees and small and

medium businesses about rights and obligations under the ESA.

o This will help employers understand their obligations and ensure compliance.

• Penalties for Non-Compliance of the ESA: Increase flexibility around administrative monetary penalties that Employment Standards Officers can give out to non-compliant employers.

ESA Non-Compliance Proposals

• There is intention to amend a regulation under the ESA to increase maximum administrative monetary penalties for non-compliant employers from $250, $500, and $1000 to $350, $700, and $1500, respectively.

• Proposal to allow a Director of Employment Standards to publish (including online) the names of individuals who have been issued a penalty, a description of the contravention, the date of the contravention and the amount of penalty.

AODA Non-Compliance Consequence• Businesses with less than 20 employees don’t need to file the

compliance report, but still have obligations under the Customer Standard of AODA.

• Obligations include: o Establish policies, practices & procedures on providing

goods/services to people with disabilities; o Provide people with disabilities with notice of a temporary

disruption in facilities or services; ando Provide training to certain employees about the provision of its

goods or services to persons with disabilities.

AODA Non-Compliance Consequence

• A non compliant organization (with more than 20 employees) is given 15 business days to comply with the AODA.

• Thereafter, it would be subject to a fine of up to $50,000 for each day the organization does not comply with the AODA.

• To be issued an order with the maximum penalty amount, the person, organization or corporation must have a compliance history that includes six or more previous contraventions; and the contravention must be a priority requirement of the accessibility standard, as determined by the ministry.

• More info on AODA enforcement penalties: http://bit.ly/2xnZDET

AODA Non-Compliance Consequence

Individuals/Unincorporated Organizations Corporations

Administrative Penalties for:

Preparing for the Changes• Possible minimum wage updates and could require organizations

to adjust their:

o payroll set ups (vacation accruals),

o Policies regarding disability leave (STD/WI),

o workforce policy rules (overtime, holidays & three-hour rule),

o scheduling processes.

• Avoid duplication of effort and confusion - Ensure that you have a single person in the office who is charged with the responsibility of keeping up to speed with ESA changes.

• This individual must understand the impacts to, and requirements of ensuring that your business is compliant.

Preparing for the Changes

• Start an internal process and policy review now;

• Determine and confirm potential impacts in the context of your day to day operations.

• Communicate with your business partners and your employees.

• Work with your partners to understand how best to adjust.

• Keep yourself and your employees informed. Be transparent.

• Problems arise when employers don’t keep themselves informed and are not engaged with legislative changes.

• Ask for help. Sometimes its impossible to be an Army of One. We’re here to assist.

Client Case Analysis: Beneplan HR Advisory

• Beneplan’s HR Advisory Services for clients was launched in March 2017.

• All cases are handled with utmost regard to confidentiality & privacy for both employer and employee.

• We’ve provided support and advice for over 140 cases to date.

• We’ve hear from over 45 of our clients from diverse industry sectors.

Client Case Analysis: Beneplan HR AdvisoryThe top 3 categories of areas of support needed by our clients are:

• Employee Life Cycle issues:

o Benefits, Leave of Absence, Return to Work, Assist with Policy Creation, Administrative Template Letters, Progressive Discipline Process, Warning Letters etc.)

• Separation of Employment issues:

o Termination of Employement, Resignations etc.

• Compliance Items:

o ESA, AODA, Human Rights, Investigations, Accomodations, Employer Obligations etc.

Improve Your Employee Experience• Employee issues typically arise when employers don’t keep

themselves informed or are not engaged with employees:

o We know there’s an issue but we haven’t addressed it - we were busy with running the business.

o No news is Good News!

o Trying to put in a drastic fix when its too late.

• Keep lines of communication open:

o Listen to your employees and keep an open mind.

o They’re human & have personal lives that impact their work lives.

o Be collaborative, build trust, share information - The more the better.

Improve Your Employee Experience• Get your documentation in order: Begin with employment

contracts and work through the employee life cycle. This work will save you a lot of trouble later on.

• Document all discussions with employees. Leave no chance for “he said, she said…”, ambiguity or misunderstanding.

• Issues dealt with in an inconsistent manner: unprepared, hap-hazard manner, no clarity.

• Follow up/ Follow through: Instances where employers begin a course of action but no subsequent follow up or follow through.

• Follow the Beneplan Blog – http://beneplan.ca/blog/ Lots of useful information on a monthly basis!

Questions? Comments?

Joel GomesSr. HR ManagerBeneplan Inc.hr@beneplan.ca(416) 863-6718 ext. 268

Yafa SakkejhaGeneral ManagerBeneplan Inc. yafa@beneplan.ca(416) 863-6718 ext. 252