Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER JUNE 2019 INSIGHT 27 Reader feedback on topical issues Cannabis, immigration, talent shortages and bullying prompt online commentary We get a lot of reader responses online to our content — whether it's news posts, blogs from our columnists or articles from the magazine. We love to hear from people "in the know" to get their take on the latest trends and issues facing human resources. Here's a sampling of the com- mentary we've had recently: Re: Despite cannabis legaliza- tion, impairment testing still hazy "Employers that deem themselves 'safety-sensitive' will always pun- ish recreational cannabis users. It's absolutely crazy the amount of employers that have implemented zero tolerance cannabis use since January of this year. ey don't care about impairment at all, just presence in your system. e opi- oid use is just going to ramp up again, if it hasn't already. "Yes, it is still the rights of em- ployers to write their own drug and alcohol policy. Zero tolerance and random testing isn't going anywhere unless changes to the labour laws are brought forward. I recently failed a pre-screen due to 'trace amounts of THC in the urinalysis within the last 90 days.' I used cannabis oil (for stomach issues) five weeks before, but still failed urinalysis. "e testing method is abso- lutely arbitrary. It's like northern Alberta has taken legalization personally and there is now a vendetta against personal off-shift use." — Anonymous Re: Talent shortage threatens growth "e fact that more people from Quebec leave for other provinces is not a surprise to me as we are the most taxed province or state in North America. If you are single or mobile, why not relocate to where your buying power is bet- ter?" — Sylvain Nolin Re: Don't make election about immigration, corporate Canada tells political leaders "Why bring immigrants when their credentials are not recog- nized, they cannot contribute their skills to the economy and they are getting minimum wage jobs? "Even locally educated people cannot get jobs, because the companies ask for experience (when people just graduated). So most people aged 22 to 30 work minimum wage jobs unless they know someone who can get them a job. "It's not what you have or know, it's who you know that lands you a job in Canada. Sad. Look at the Swiss model and train the work- force instead of asking for experi- ence." — Anonymous Re: Builders Code hopes to combat harassment, bullying in construction "Bullying is an ongoing prob- lem on many construction sites in B.C., which is why many wom- en just don't stick around on con- struction sites. And the issue of bullying isn't being taken serious- ly enough when reported, from the powers that be on construc- tion sites, to the higher-ups at the companies, to WorksafeBC, to the various tribunals. Workers on construction sites know that nobody will take complaints seri- ously and we either move on or move out. "I'm a female worker on con- struction sites, have spoken to other female workers on sites, and we've all had our experi- ences with bullies which have affected our jobs — and there's literally nowhere to go for help to alleviate the problems with that." — Anonymous Re: Five behavioural economics theories to nudge employees to better health "Subscribing to already prepared meals is the worst advice ever. How is that healthy? It is the same as eating out. If you want to be healthy and love your body, the only way to keep it that way is to cook at home as much as you can. Look at baby boomers' health compared to the millennials — who is healthier?" — Kristaps Kuplais Re: Halifax mayor asks employ- ers to excuse late workers after 'ultimate sports day' "Really? Now we are suggesting it is OK to over-indulge and be fit for duty? From a mayor? I would have expected more from a politician to lead our society correctly. I am happy for the teams and the fans who support them, but really?" — Anonymous Re: Ontario public service em- ployees sue province, unions over alleged racism "Systemic racism will always exist, and we can't change racists, but we can learn how to act around them. I, too, experienced harass- ment from a person in a position of power and a close-minded col- league. As a black woman, they were threatened by my high level of education. ank God, I man- aged to move into a different di- vision where we have employees from different races and highly educated people. It took them almost a year to replace me." — Anonymous Re: Name-blind recruitment pilot sees mixed results "I am not sure why the Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC) reported that the name- blind recruitment process had no effect on the screening decisions of managers when it came to ap- plications from visible minority groups. "From the data that they pro- vided, it is obvious that name- blind recruitment did have a sig- nificant impact on the screening decisions of managers when it came to applications from visible minority groups. e data clearly shows that, in general, the name- blind recruitment study allowed fewer people to get through to the next stage than traditional methods. "However, while in general the percentage of applicants ap- proved is less, you would expect the same rate of reduction no matter if there's a visible minority or not. In actual fact, the num- ber of candidates screened out was significantly less if they were not a visible minority, whereas if they were a visible minority, the numbers didn't change much." — Audrey Foo Re: Quebec to ban public work- ers from wearing religious symbols "is is very disturbing and un- acceptable, all in the name of protecting a province's 'secular' image? is is blatant discrimina- tion and the mere fact the Que- bec government is activating the rarely used clause indicates that they know what they're doing is not right. We are going backwards in time rather than moving for- ward, becoming like the United States more and more each day." — Anonymous Re: Ontario reforms police record checks "I believe this will be a good change for the people who ex- perience barriers when trying to gain meaningful employment, especially those that are consid- ered non-criminal and non-con- viction interactions. e hiring process in some companies hap- pens very fast and hiring man- agers only give a few moments to each applicant they have to process. Helping that process by cutting out all the unnecessary information before it reaches the employer will be a big step." — Summer Reilly Re: Reaping the benefits of de- layed retirement "is plan is so out of step with reality. Employers are standing in line to push older workers out the door. Perhaps for the pension contribution savings? And, yes, employers are reluctant to hire older workers. "So, while this actuarial finan- cial plan makes smart financial and economic sense, until gov- ernment pushes employers to stop putting older workers on ice floes and pushing them out to sea, or telling them they are 'overquali- fied' for work, this plan will simply increase poverty and hardship for people in their vintage years." — Alexis Leclair If you'd like to have your say, visit www. hrreporter.com and click "Add Com- ment" at the end of the article or blog. Parental leave requested by worker who may not be involved with child Does employer have to provide leave if employee is not primary caregiver? Question: Does an employer have to provide parental leave to an employee who is the bio- logical father of a baby but it knows the employee isn't really involved with the care of the child (for example, the mother has a new partner and is estranged from the employee)? Answer: Human rights legisla- tion generally prohibits employ- ers from discriminating against employees on the basis of pro- tected grounds with respect to the terms and conditions of em- ployment. Depending on the ap- plicable human rights legislation, the protected grounds of family status and gender would likely be engaged. As such, an employer that re- fuses an employee's request for leave on the basis of these pro- tected grounds will likely find itself on the receiving end of a hu- man rights complaint. Whether or not the employee is successful is another question and will depend on the unique cir- cumstances of the case. First, it is reasonable for an em- ployer to expect that this employ- ee is taking the leave for purposes related to parenting the newborn child. Certainly, an employee who is taking his statutory parental leave should not be using that time to go backpacking across Europe for a few months. However, an employer should avoid making any assumptions about the employee's circum- stances based on that employee's gender and family status. Just because an employee is not the primary caregiver does not mean she is not entitled to take parental leave. Employers will want to refer- ence the applicable employment standards legislation. Most juris- dictions do not impose the con- dition that the employee be the "primary caregiver." In Manitoba, for example, an employee must have simply be- come "a" parent of a newborn child. e entitlement to leave begins once the child is born, adopted, or comes into the care and custody of the employee. Federally regulated employ- ees are subject to more specific requirements. Section 206.1 of the Canada La- bour Code states that employees are entitled to parental leave "to care for a newborn child of the employee" or "a child who is in the care of the employee for the purpose of adoption." us, if the employee in this scenario is a federally regulated employee, she will need to be in- volved with the care of the child. Based on the law in each re- spective jurisdiction, as long as the employee works for the re- quired length of time (if any), the employee is generally entitled to the statutorily prescribed parental leave. The qualification period be- tween the provinces varies. For example, in Saskatchewan and Ontario, the qualification period is 13 weeks' service. In Manitoba, the employee must have worked at least seven consecutive months with the employer. Federally regulated employ- ees must have six consecutive months' employment with the employer. Although this employee's pa- rental leave needs to be legiti- mately connected to parenting, the employer will want to avoid making any assumptions based on this employee's perceived fam- ily status. Parenting arrangements be- tween estranged spouses can take many forms and human rights legislation recognizes this. Leah Schatz is a partner at MLT Aikins in Saskatoon. She can be reached at (306) 975-7144 or lschatz@ mltaikins.com. Leah Schatz Toughest HR Question

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