Dear Friends, Welcome to our Winter 2019 edition of Reaching Out. The last 18 months have been a tumultuous time in employment law in Ontario. We saw the introduction of sweeping changes to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 and Labour Relations Act, 1995 in January 2018, only to see many of them repealed in January…
Industry: Professional & Technical Services
Amendments to Complaints and Appeals Provisions of the Canada Labour Code to Come into Force on April 1, 2019
The federal government has proclaimed April 1, 2019 as the coming into force date for certain provisions[1] of Bill C-44, the Budget Implementation Act 2017, No. 1 which amend a number of provisions in the Canada Labour Code. For details on the changes to be implemented under Bill C-44, refer to our Federal Post article…
Craig Rix Quoted in the Law Times on the Additional Changes in Employment Law Introduced by Bill 66
Hicks Morley’s Craig Rix was quoted by the Law Times in the January 28, 2019 article titled, “Additional Changes for Employment Laws Proposed” in which the impact of the proposed changes introduced by Bill 66 – Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act on the workplace are explored, such as overtime.
David Alli Explains the Difference Between Workplace Harassment and Performance Management on Canadian HR Reporter
Hicks Morley’s David Alli was featured by the Canadian HR Reporter on February 4, 2019 in an interview where he addressed the main differences between workplace harassment and constructive criticism and how employers can mitigate these claims.
Significant New Incident Reporting Requirement for Federally Regulated Financial Institutions
The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has recently issued an advisory of significance to federally regulated financial institutions (FRIFs). Beginning on March 31, 2019, FRFIs will be required to report material technology or cyber incidents to OSFI. An incident is defined as follows: a technology or cyber security incident is defined to…
WSIB Issues New Policy on Medical Cannabis
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) has issued Policy 17-01-10 Cannabis for Medical Purposes (Policy) which will come into effect on March 1, 2019. The WSIB has previously covered the cost of medical cannabis in some circumstances, primarily for the relief of pain in accordance with section 33 of the Workplace Safety and Insurance…
Federal Government Proposes Legislative Amendments to Address Salary Overpayments
On January 15, 2019 the federal government announced proposed amendments to the Income Tax Act (ITA), Employment Insurance Act (EI Act) and Canada Pension Plan (CPP) that would more readily facilitate the correction of salary overpayments made to employees.
Workplace Law in Canada
Workplace law in Canada operates in a significantly different way than workplace law in the United States. This short primer sets out the main features of Canadian workplace law to enable American legal counsel to understand the basic differences and ask further questions.
Ministry of Labour Publishes New ESA Poster
The Ministry of Labour has published a revised version of the ESA poster (Version 8.0) to reflect the recent changes to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 made by Bill 47, Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018. Employers are required to post the poster in a conspicuous place in the workplace, among other things. Learn more in this FTR Now.
Tribunal Finds that Denial of Coverage for Medical Cannabis under Employer’s Benefit Plan is not Discriminatory
The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (the Tribunal) recently held that the decision to deny coverage for medical cannabis coverage under an employer’s benefit plan is not discrimination under the Ontario Human Rights Code (Code) when the decision to deny coverage is unrelated to an applicant’s disability or another protected ground. In Rivard v. Essex (County),…