Canadian Employment Law Today

CANADIAN EMPLOYMENT LAW TODAY Job offers conditional upon screening results Continued from page 8 Best practices and practical considerations Compliance with the RHA's new requirements mean changes to the way in which retirement homes recruit and hire staff and volunteers, whether directly or through a staffing agency. As January 2014 is around the corner, now is the time to review current practices and make appropriate changes. To this end, consider designing and implementing a compliance and training protocol tailored to the organization. Topics to address should include the following: Assign responsibility. Assign an individual or team whose responsibility it will be to ensure compliance with the new screening requirements. Contact police service agencies. Ensure the individual or team is familiar with the screening protocols of each relevant police services agency as those protocols currently exist and may change from time to time. Contact the various agencies to introduce the retirement home and make the appropriate connections. Where it is necessary for the retirement home to register with a police agency, consider doing so proactively in advance of Jan. 1, 2014. Similarly, where the retirement home must submit a letter to a particular police agency, have template letters ready to go. Human rights and privacy awareness. Ensure the individual or team referred to above is trained on how to receive, review, act on and protect the sensitive personal information gathered through the screening process. This will include regular training on prevailing human rights and privacy law. Budget for associated costs. Consider whether the home will assume the cost of screening potential employees and volunteers, and make budgetary provi- sion for same. Communicate with and educate existing and potential staff and volunteers. Prepare communications and consider learning sessions to educate current and potential staff and volunteers about the impending law, its purpose and how it will affect them and the retirement home community, now and into the future. Where the home has a relationship with a union, consider the utility of engaging the union in this process. Review and amend agreements with staffing agencies. Consider amending agreement with staffing agencies to include terms that reflect the agency's agreement to ongoing compliance with the RHA's screening requirements, to fully and promptly disclose to the retirement home all information gathered in advance of any placement, and to al- Consider amending agreement with staffing agencies and allow for periodic audits of screening protocols. low for periodic audits of the agency's screening protocols. These steps should be carefully balanced with the risk that the home and agency may be found, for example, to be "co-employers" in the context of a union application for certification or other employment-related legal claims. Regular declarations. Given the requirement that staff and volunteers "promptly" declare certain occurrences (described earlier), consider the benefit of requiring each staff and volunteer to sign a declaration every six months. This regular declaration would not relieve the staff member or volunteer from the obligation of disclosing "promptly" should there be an occurrence. However, it may demonstrate the retirement home's due diligence and send an important message to the community. Make offers conditional. Ensure any offer of employment or to volunteer is in writing and conditional on satisfactory background screening results, and that no employee or volunteer be hired or accepted, or permitted to commence work in a home, prior to receipt and consideration of the screening results. Start the screening process now. Given that the screening process can take several weeks or months, consider starting to screen applicants as soon as possible rather than waiting until January 2014. About the Authors Gerald Griffiths Erin R. Kuzz EMPLOYMENT LAW BLOG Canadian Employment Law Today invites you to check out its employment law blog, where editor Jeffrey R. Smith discusses recent cases and developments in employment law. The blog includes a tool for readers to offer their comments, so discussion is welcome and encouraged. The blog features discussion of topics such as holiday parties, reasonable notice, insubordination and union reps, taking a piece of employee tips, and constructive dismissal. You can view the blog at www.employmentlawtoday.com. Gerald Griffiths and Erin R. Kuzz are lawyers with Sherrard Kuzz LLP, a management-side employment and labour law firm in Toronto. Gerald and Erin can be contacted at (416) 603-0700 (Main), (416) 420-0738 (24 Hour),or www.sherrardkuzz. com. Published by Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2013 9

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