Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER JANUARY 2019 10 NEWS Are you ready for a Healthy Change in Benefits? Discover why we are a leading choice for Health, Dental, Life, and Disability coverage. medaviebc.ca/healthychange Visit us at Booth 932 at the HRPA 2019 CONFERENCE AND TRADE SHOW Jan 30 to Feb 1 notice before implementation of a schedule. And employees would be able to refuse a shift if that notice was not provided, said Demeo. However, the provision would not apply in the case of emergen- cy, if a collective agreement pro- vides an alternate time frame, or if the changes were requested by the employee. "e most amount of consider- ation typically, we find, needs to go into the scheduling provisions be- cause it requires employers to take a careful examination of what they do currently, and then what they may need to do going forward in order to comply," he said. "And it adds a layer of extra rigidity which may hamper employers' ability to respond to the changing needs or demands of their business." at change is a bit of a sur- prise, according to Najeeb Has- san, a partner at Roper Greyell in Vancouver. "What's really interesting is typically — and you see this in a lot of collective agreements — the remedy for lack of notice is over- time, so if you don't give an ap- propriate amount of notice, there are overtime obligations. And… the purpose of that is usually to create a disincentive for abuse, so the employer's not without thought, constantly changing schedules and creating havoc. is provision provides a remedy to employees so they can refuse the shift without reprisal, which I think is going to be challenging for employers because it's going to create operational changes where customer needs and demands are such that the work needs to get done, but if the employee refuses a schedule change, that could be problematic." Temporary help restrictions Bill C-86 would also prohibit an employer from paying employ- ees differently for performing the same work on the basis of "employment status," said De- meo. And temporary help agen- cies would be barred from pay- ing employees less than what the employer pays its own employees performing the same job. is approach has given em- ployers some difficulty in the pro- vincial regime, he said, "just hav- ing to actually look at everything and determining what actually is substantially similar or not. at certainly will be something that both federally regulated employ- ers and temporary help agencies will need to look at." "Having to manage all these different classifications of em- ployees and ensuring compliance will be an extra level of work for employers." e changes could put some agencies in a very precarious po- sition, said Hassan. "ey're prohibited from pay- ing their employees a lower wage rate than a client paying its em- ployees, and so the ultimate cus- tomer may choose not to engage if there's no cost savings. So this is likely to result in an increase in costs to the (employer) that's go- ing to impact on their business, which could result in less desire to engage temporary help. It may result in the (employer) deciding to work short-staffed instead of bringing in temporary help." The changes will be costly for employers because agencies would be prohibited from charg- ing fees for the placement, accord- ing to Martyn. "ey're losing that source of income and then, at the same time, they would be required to pay temporary employees the same rate of pay as permanent employees if they're performing the same type of work, so it'll defi- nitely make it more complex and costly for employers. So they'll probably reconsider whether or not they should use temporary agency workers." Leaves, vacations expanded When it comes to leaves of ab- sence, Bill C-86 would remove the existing service requirement that an employee complete six months of continuous service before being entitled to various leaves, accord- ing to Demeo. In addition, there would be a personal leave of five days — with the first three paid after three months of continuous employ- ment — for issues such as per- sonal illness, health care or care of family members, or education- related responsibilities. A leave for victims of family vio- lence would remain at 10 days but the first five days would be paid, he said. And a "medical leave" would re- place a sick leave but remain a 17- week entitlement and along with covering personal illness or injury, it would cover organ or tissue do- nation, or medical appointments during working hours. e medical leave expands the scope of what would classify as a medical leave, said Demeo. "It just broadens employees' eli- gibility to take this kind of leave, even if it is for things such as organ or tissue donation, more things that could be a reflection of choice rather than an actual requirement for the employee." e medical leave broadens the scope of use, and is now available for medical appointments, said Hassan, "which some employ- ers permit; but many employers treat that as unpaid time, or they require employees to make those appointments outside of their work hours." e leaves will definitely be chal- lenging for employers to accom- modate, especially those that have high turnover rates, said Martyn. "at will be costly to employ- ers for sure because it's not only the cost of those paid leave days, but it's also the cost of replacing the missing staff for those extra leave days that people will be en- titled to take." With Bill C-86, vacation time and pay entitlements would also be increased so employees with one year of service would receive two weeks' vacation and four per cent vacation pay; employees with more than five years of service would get three weeks' vacation and six per cent vacation pay; and employees with more than 10 years of service would get four weeks' vacation and eight per cent vacation pay. "Longer-service employees now have entitlement to four weeks... so that's an additional cost that's going to be imposed on most employers," said Hassan. "e challenge… isn't necessar- ily just the imposition of the cost, but there's been no opportunity to plan for it, so most employers would… have an accrual or bank or something of that nature. So… those employees are now entitled to an additional week of vacation and two per cent pay. Whereas before they would have been capped," he said. "(Before), some employers might have provided a benefit of that nature, but they would have planned for it." Pay equity requirements e bill also devotes quite a bit of space to the issue of pay equity. It would create a federal Pay Equity Act that requires employ- ers to establish pay equity plans, while unionized and large em- ployers would have to establish a pay equity committee. A pay equity commissioner would also be established to administer and enforce the act, and to promote compliance, while an adminis- trative monetary penalty system would be introduced, said Demeo. "e proactive nature of the changes, it's going to require em- ployers to actively put regimes and measures in place in order to comply to actually meet the legis- lative requirements," he said. "It'll definitely require employ- ers to do more in terms of actually meeting the compliance measures set out in the legislation, even if they were, in all effects and pur- poses, compliant with pay equity prior to Bill C-86." e objective of the pay equity plan is to provide men and women with equal pay when they're per- forming the same sort of work, said Martyn. "Within those plans, employers would be expected to identify and evaluate why there may be differ- ences in compensation between male and female jobs of equal val- ue; and then unionized and large employers… would be required to establish a pay equity committee and the committee would need to be composed of at least three members." Terminating employment When it comes to termination of employment, the Canada Labour Code's two-week notice provi- sion would be replaced with a graduated notice regime that's more similar to provincial em- ployment standards legislation, said Demeo. "Redundant employees," who are part of a group termination, would be entitled to at least eight weeks' notice. This shouldn't be too much of a change since it's a common standard in other jurisdictions, he said. "ere's more in terms of com- pliance at least with respect to group terminations that will need to be done and provided to em- ployees, and a lot more steps will have to be done in advance, well in advance, in order to ensure compliance with the new require- ments. But the graduated individ- ual notice system is not something that will throw too many employ- ers off." Employees with at least three months of service would have to be given two to eight weeks' writ- ten notice of termination; two to eight weeks' pay in lieu of notice at their regular rate of wages for their regular hours of work; or a combination of the two, equiva- lent to at least two to eight weeks depending on length of service, said Martyn. "It's not surprising because it is in line with what is happening with provincially regulated employers, but it's still a big adjustment." Bill C-86 also expands on the changes to the adjudication of unjust dismissal complaints that were first implemented in Bill C-44 and provide that such complaints would be referred to the Canada Industrial Rela- tions Board (CIRB) instead of an adjudicator. "Adjudicators are now going to have the authority to suspend or dismiss a complaint where the complaint is frivolous, vexatious or not made in good faith, or where the substance of the complaint is dealt with in another proceeding, whereas in the past, that authority didn't exist," said Hassan. "at's a positive change be- cause it ensures that where a com- plaint really is designed to harass or embarrass an employer, and it's not really made in good faith, the adjudicator can deal with it upfront." Medical leave made available for appointments BILL C-86 < pg. 1 "It's not only the cost of paid leave days, but the cost of replacing missing staff."

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