Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER DECEMBER 2019 FEATURES 25 velopment, group benefits at Sun Life Financial in Montreal. e plan is "part of our extend- ed health-care portfolio. It's not under the drug plan, per se. It's under our medical services and supply," says dos Santos. "We do not limit the type that is provided, it's up to the patient and the phy- sician or health-care practitioner to decide what is the best way to administer the medical cannabis." Sun Life's coverage includes seven conditions and symptoms (cancer, rheumatoid, HIV, AIDS, palliative care, refractory spastic- ity in spinal cord injury and refrac- tory pediatric onset epilepsy) but does not cover PTSD. "Medical cannabis is an evolv- ing landscape where we are expecting there to be ongoing clinical research. As a result, we expect our list of eligible condi- tions and related symptoms to also evolve in order to continue to provide coverage to Canadian employers and their members with severe and serious medical conditions. When assessing eli- gibility for coverage and claims, we consider guidance provided by Health Canada, physicians' li- censing authorities and national medical professional organiza- tions," says Chloé Phillips, se- nior communications specialist in corporate communications at Sun Life Financial. Alternative to opiates e UBC research also found that many Canadians are taking pain management into their own hands by using marijuana as an alterna- tive to opiates. "ere's a large number of Ca- nadians who are using cannabis as maybe a last hope or as an impro- vised self-management strategy after maybe not benefiting from conventional therapy," says Lake. As a medical solution to the opi- ate addiction problem, cannabis has been shown as a good alterna- tive, says Tsebelis. "e construction industry and unions in particular have probably been the hardest hit and impacted by the opiate crisis," he says. "We talk about more than 4,000, almost 4,500 deaths a year that are related to opiate overdoses." The Labourers' International Union of North America (LiUNA) covers medical marijuana for workers, and the company's origi- nal vision was based around "opi- ate displacement," says Tsebelis. "[It] recognized that they need- ed to do something to address the opiate crisis." BACKGROUND SCREENING Outsourcing workers without insourcing risk Background checks as essential for gig economy as they are for full-time employment By Jim Hickey T he nature of how we work is changing. rough the advent of new technolo- gies, every day, more and more people are finding different ways to earn a living than ever before. Part-time work, extended con- tracts and service-oriented busi- ness models are taking shape and creating a situation where a fast-growing segment of the population is forming its own economy, popularly known as the gig economy. e gig economy is unlike the established full-time employ- ment model. When employees are full-time, they earn a regular paycheck and receive benefits that include retirement invest- ments, holidays and paid-time- off vacations. Workers in the gig economy, however, are choosing a non- traditional career path, opting to be contracted out on a short- term employment basis or to provide a single-use service such as rideshares, hospitality shares, in-home care, dog walking, and labour, to name just a few. In fact, a survey of the digital economy conducted by Statistics Canada found that about 230,000 Canadians had been involved in gig work in the previous 12 months, or 0.8 per cent of the population over age 18. Dealing with inherent risk One of the biggest differences between full-time employment and the gig economy is that, by its very nature, the work that cre- ates the gig economy requires that on-demand services be delivered in what is widely described as the vulnerable sector. With rideshares, for example, a driver picks a person up in their own vehicle to drive them to their desired destination. With in-home care, be it for senior cit- izens or young children, a care- giver comes into a person's home to care for their loved ones. Indeed, those who earn mul- tiple sources of income are en- joying a great amount of work freedom but, at the same time, they have the potential to create a great amount of safety risk for the companies that employ them, as well as their customers. To combat the creation of un- safe environments for custom- ers, gig economy technologies are designed to offer digital rat- ing systems through which users generate and share their personal approval or disapproval of servic- es performed. Additionally, some gig appli- cations offer GPS monitoring to track the whereabouts of contract workers. But there's something missing: Not that many gig economy appli- cations will tell you the employ- ment or criminal history of the person who comes to a customer's front door to deliver groceries or drive them around town. It would be highly disruptive to the safety of employees, cus- tomers and the company's brand should an incident occur. So, the question is this: Is the owner of a gig economy business willing to risk the brand's reputation and everything it has built? Perhaps more than most, the employee-customer relation- ships created by the gig economy prove why conducting back- ground screening for gig workers is so essential. Companies are placing much on the line in unmonitored set- tings, so a proper background check will go a long way to detect a criminal past that could signal future safety or character issues. Going beyond the minimum But it should be noted not all background checks are cre- ated equally. Some background screens offer the bare minimum of information, using a basic criminal records database search or attempting to contact an em- ployee reference. A search that is not robust can result in missing or outdated information. What is needed most is a back- ground check that can help cre- ate safer environments, mitigate risk, and enable compliant prac- tices. at means using providers that rely on the most advanced digital platforms, use a multi- step process to deliver reliable results, and uncover criminal records that can be missed by others. Also, access to primary infor- mation sources is paramount to obtaining the most current, up- to-date information. Just as important, deep market and industry expertise can help clients deftly navigate through the complex, ever-evolving in- ternational regulatory landscape. Jim Hickey is the managing director for Canada at Sterling Backcheck in Toronto. For more information, visit sterlingbackcheck.ca. Drug faces stigma CANNABIS < pg. 3 What is needed most is a background check that can help create safer environments and mitigate risk. HR News at Your Fingertips Sign up for the Canadian HR Newswire today for free and enjoy great content from the publishers of Canadian HR Reporter. THE LATEST NEWS Stay on top of essential late-breaking HR news and developments. THE BEST COMMENTARY Access trusted analysis and opinion on the cases and changes that are shaping the HR landscape. DELIVERED WEEKLY Your profession can change quickly, which is why you need the freshest, most recent information. FOR READING ON ANY DEVICE Get the news and opinions you need on any device. 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