Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER December 14, 2015 NEWS 7 Canadian Labour Reporter is a weekly newsletter that is designed to provide labour professionals, lawyers and the industrial relations industry with valuable information and strategies on how to assess, monitor and approach labour collective bargaining agreements. This weekly newsletter provides summaries of recent collective agreement ratifications, labour arbitration digests, analysis of new and amended legislation and regulation, statistical tables on unemployment and inflation, as well as news and analysis of new and amended legislation and regulations. Eliminate hours of research and rely on the trusted resource labour relations experts and lawyers have depended on since 1956! Tired of being out of the loop in the fast-moving industrial relations field? Labour Reporter Canadian www.labour-reporter.com • Receive 48 information-packed issues of Canadian Labour Reporter • Gain full access to www.labour-reporter.com (including a searchable archive of articles, collective agreements and much more) • Weekly e-newsleter including breaking news, head lines and features! Start your subscription and receive: PM #40065782 Labour Reporter Canadian www.labour-reporter.com March 16, 2015 ArbitrAtion AwArds see Collective agreements > pg. 3 Employer fails to properly assess experience pg. 8 Immeubles RB Ltée Boucherville pg. 3 Université de Québec pg. 3 Government of Ontario pg. 4 College Employer Council pg. 4 Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp. pg. 5 The Beechwood pg. 5 Child Development Centre pg. 6 College Employer Council pg. 6 ColleCtive Agreements ColleCtive Agreements Photo: Blair Gable (Reuters) Negotiation Skills - April 19-24, 2015: Kingston Developing Negotiating Styles and Tactics to Master the Dynamics of Collective Bargaining. i r c . q u e e n s u . c a pg. 2 Alberta charts new bargaining territory Public sector unions caution against centralized model By SaBrina nanji New reforms iNtroduced in Al- berta will streamline negotiations between the government and public sector unions, according to the premier. Jim Prentice announced earlier this month that the provincial government will overhaul the way it bargains with public ser- vice unions, in order to establish a co-ordi- nated and disciplined approach. On the heels of the announcement, Prentice also established a working group to address labour relations, led by Alberta's justice and solicitor-general deputy minister, Tim Grant. Grant is tasked with developing a fund- ing mechanism that is "fair, consistent and respectful of both workers and taxpayers," according to Prentice, and is expected to re- port back in four months. Until then, labour groups warn that their clout at the bargaining table may be dwindling. cP rail's test for vision-impaired conductor 'flawed': Arbitrator A coNductor and locomo- tive engineer who suffers from a vision impairment was given a clean bill of health to return to his normal operations by an arbitra- tor after CP Rail's testing process was found to be flawed. The conductor, whose name was not provided given that the hearing pertains to his disability, suffered from a "non-degenera- tive mild-to-moderate colour vi- sion defect," according to arbi- trator Christine Schmidt — the second time she has presided over MUNICIPALITY city of terrace terrace, B.c. (120 inside and outside employees) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 2012 renewal agreement: Effective Jan. 1, 2015, to Dec. 31, 2017. Signed on Feb. 2, 2015. shift premium: 70¢ for em- ployees required to operate a jackhammer or power compac- tor. $1.70 per hour for employ- ees required to manually clean or repair sanitary sewers. $1.70 With a forthcoming budget that hints at austerity and an overhaul of labour relations, Al- berta Premier Jim Prentice looks to tighten purse strings — which could spell cuts for unions. Job quality at record low: CIBC report Drop in job quality more structural than cyclical see Arbitration > pg. 8 see Province> pg. 7 ArbitrAtion AwArds Subscribe today! $595 per year! Order No.20260 Access a sample issue now at: bitly.com/CLR-FreePreview Call toll free: 1-800-387-5164, in Toronto 416-609-3800 Online at: www.labour-reporter.com/subscribe Email: carswell.customerrelations@thomsonreuters.com With minimal accommodation, people with HIV productive employees Charlie Sheen's revelation puts disease in spotlight, highlights lingering stigma BY SARAH DOBSON IT WASN'T exactly earth-shat- tering, but when American actor Charlie Sheen recently revealed he had HIV, the news made head- lines around the world — and also generated plenty of chatter. at's probably because the dis- ease still carries a certain stigma, unlike other episodic disabilities such as multiple sclerosis or dia- betes, because it can be transmit- ted through sexual activity and sharing needles. But since it was first discovered in the early 80s as the virus that causes AIDs, HIV has benefited from advances in research and medication, considerably reduc- ing the mortality rate. And a per- son living with HIV today can live a full, productive life, personally and professionally. irty years ago, there was no treatment for HIV, according to Alison Symington, co-director of research and policy at the Cana- dian HIV/AIDS Legal Network in Toronto. "We're now at a point, for most people, if they work with doctors and get on successful treatment, their viral load can be brought down to an undetectable level. So what that means is the amount of the virus that's present in their blood and body fluids… will be reduced to such a low level it isn't even picked up on a test anymore. ey'll have HIV in their system but it's under control and that's fabulous for many different rea- sons, one of which is your im- mune system isn't going to decline and your health isn't going to be affected in the same way." e number of people living with HIV (including AIDS) in Canada continues to rise, from an estimated 64,000 in 2008 to 71,300 in 2011 (an 11.4 per cent increase), according to 2012 numbers from the Public Health Agency of Canada. But that's partly because new HIV treatments have reduced the mortality rate and new infections continue at a rate greater than the number of HIV-related deaths, so the overall number of Canadi- ans living with HIV infection will likely continue to increase in the years to come. Medical treatment has trans- formed the epidemic, she said. "Unfortunately, socially, we don't always keep up — there's still a lot of misinformation and fear and stigma around HIV that hasn't really kept up with those great medical advances." Stigma, discrimination Unfortunately, it is still a stigma- tized illness and a lot of it is based on misinformation, with people thinking, for example, HIV can be transmitted through casual contact, said Symington. "A lot of it's rooted in moral judgments that people have be- cause it's a sexually transmitted illness or transmitted through in- jection drug use... and that leads to a lot of discrimination," she said. "What happens more often now, it's not 'I told my employer I was HIV-positive and they fired me' — as you might have heard in the late 80s or early 90s — but more 'News travelled around through gossip and it's now a poi- soned work environment' stories. So while there aren't that many physical barriers for people liv- ing with HIV in the workplace, there's still barriers based on stigma and discrimination and misinformation." A lot of people who are HIV- positive face discrimination, said Gary Lacasse, executive direc- tor of the Canadian AIDS Soci- ety in Ottawa. "It's ignorance, really, because the less you are aware of how you can transmit (it), the more stigma exists. So what I tell employers is to ramp up the information. ere are amazing AIDs service organi- zations or NGOs across Canada that can come into the workplace and discuss the situation with your employees, and make it a more comfortable atmosphere for the people who are living with HIV… because if you're talking about big, national companies, there are a lot of people living with HIV in them." ere's no need for co-workers to fear a person with HIV, said Symington. "While employers may need to provide some accommodation in order to allow a person to work to their full ability, they can be amazing, productive employees, so everybody needs to inform themselves a little bit if they are worried or concerned." Health challenges HIV is a chronic illness that has periods of wellness interrupted by periods of illness and worsening symptoms, according to Wendy Porch, manager of episodic dis- abilities initiatives at the Cana- dian Working Group on HIV and Rehabilitation in Toronto. "One of the difficulties is that it's very difficult to predict when the episodes will happen, how long they'll last or how severe they'll be. ey're not unique to HIV — we know that there are increasing numbers of Canadians that are liv- ing with conditions like multiple sclerosis, lupus, diabetes… mental illnesses also fall under this kind of category of having fluctuations in terms of periods of good health and periods of illness." Unfortunately, if people try to work through the low periods when they haven't asked for ac- commodation, they can reach a point where they are unable to YOU > pg. 8

• Cover