Canadian Employment Law Today

PM40065782 Emplo y ment Law Today Canad ad a ian www.employmentlawtoday.com April 27, 2016 Ontario's new sexual violence and harassment legislation New legislation defi ning workplace sexual harassment — Bill 132 — receives Royal Assent BY NORM KEITH AND CATHY CHANDLER ON MARCH 8, 2016, the Ontario government passed Bill 132, Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act (Supporting Survivors and Chal- lenging Sexual Violence and Harassment), 2015. e legislation will amend various statutes, in- cluding the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), with respect to sexual violence, sexual harassment, domestic violence and related mat- ters — and employers should take notice. e legislation is an important part of "It's Never Okay," the province's three-year action plan to help change attitudes, improve supports for survivors who come forward, and make work- places, communities and school campuses safer and more responsive to incidents and complaints about sexual violence and harassment. Amendments to Ontario OHSA e following amendments to the province's Oc- cupational Health and Safety Act will come into Fired superintendents can stay in apartment pg. 3 Contract allowed option of staying as tenants if fi red with Meghan McCreary CREDIT: FIRMA V/SHUTTERSTOCK Nurse fi red for trying to hide restriction on treating patients pg. 4 Nurse not allowed to be alone with female patients following sexual assault charge, but tried to manage it himself ASK AN EXPERT pg. 2 Independent contractors and employment standards Employee's miscarriage a disability: Tribunal Injury from a fall and a miscarriage followed by depression were disabilities that resulted in employee's inability to work BY JEFFREY R. SMITH AN ONTARIO employee's miscarriage was a disability which may require accom- modation by her employer, the Ontario Hu- man Rights Tribunal has ruled. Winnie Mou of Markham, Ont., suf- fered a deep tissue injury in January 2013 that required heavy pain medication. She had diffi culty moving one side of her body, so attempts to return to work were initially unsuccessful. Her employer, MHPM Project Leaders, wasn't able to provide short-term disability benefi ts, so she took sick days until she was able to return on Jan. 21. In May 2013 Mou suff ered a miscarriage, followed by the death of her mother-in-law shortly thereafter. ese two events led to se- vere depression, which disabled Mou and re- quired her to take time off work. Because she had used up her sick days in January, Mou had to use vacation leave. Mou wasn't offi cially di- agnosed with depression until 2014. Mou's absences in January and June led to her falling short of her targeted hours for 2013. In her annual performance evaluation, her supervisor told her she needed to improve her ability to meet scheduled delivery objec- tives and she received a rating of "improve- ment and/or further development is required to consistently meet job expectations." On Feb. 27, 2014, Mou's employment was terminated. When she asked why, she was told to "draw your own conclusions." Mou felt that the issues MHPM had with her performance were related to the time she had to take off because of her injury, miscar- riage, and depression and MHPM's failure to accommodate her issues. She fi led a com- MISCARRIAGE on page 7 » NEW on page 6 »

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