Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER February 20, 2017 10 NEWS of the more significant concerns around the leave." Many employers in the auto- motive and manufacturing sec- tors already provide generous paid sick leave, bereavement leave and other leave policies, and they had said "there's confusion right now the way the legislation is drafted as to whether their policies pro- vide a greater right or benefit to their employees, and to whether the employees are entitled to un- paid days in addition to paid days they get from their employer," said Di Francesco. And because of the way the leave was structured, it was very hard for employers — even those that had extremely generous leave provisions in the collective agree- ment or in their own policies — to successfully argue they gave a greater benefit, which is an option under the Employment Standards Act, according to Paul Broad, an employment and labour lawyer at law firm Hicks Morley in London, Ont. And most of those arguments didn't succeed, in part because emergency leave covered so much, he said. "Previously, if there had been a death in the family, you would have had up to 10 days, depend- ing on whether you used any of the other days for other reasons," said Broad. "So I think what this will do, and we'll have to see because it just came into force, is it will at least narrow down what emer- gency leave covers in terms of more personal days and creates that separate 'OK, now we know if there's a death, there's a specific bereavement leave provision,' which is how you see a lot of col- lective agreements and employee agreements are structured that way," he said. "You wouldn't usually have be- reavement leave mixed in with personal days, so it is more con- sistent with what you would see out there." Dealing with potential abuse Employers also felt the leave was being abused in that trends showed it was often used on Mon- days and Fridays or on days abid- ing holidays, said Di Francesco. "And because the act does say that an employer can request rea- sonable confirmation from the employee that they're entitled to leave, which is usually a doctor's note, employers found it was dif- ficult to actually follow up on that because of the circumstances that the leave could be used for. So, generally, with leave for the illness of a child or something of that nature, you might not neces- sarily go to a doctor for or have a doctor's note." And for employers in the au- tomobile sector, it was important they be able to meet manufac- turing demands while managing absenteeism. Absenteeism and unplanned absenteeism can be costly, said Broad. "It's disruptive to business and it costs money — you have to re- place people, often at overtime rates, etcetera — so that's been one issue, is employers trying to grant the leaves as you're required to do by law but, at the same time, control absenteeism as much as you can," he said. "It's trying to get that balance of letting employees deal with things they have to deal with but, at the same time, recognizing, from a business standpoint, that there is a cost to that, to the business as well, and trying to balance those interests." There's no argument people may have to be away for personal reason, for personal emergencies or illnesses, said Broad. "However, when you a have the leave the way it was in the Employment Standards Act or other acts, it becomes an entitle- ment and it's hard to plan around. So some companies were seeing that hundreds and hundreds of days were being lost, and if you do the tracking on this, it's close to weekends and other times, co- incidentally perhaps, but it added to doing costs in business," he said. "And if you're part of a large global enterprise, we're all trying to be as competitive as possible to attract more investment, to retain investment here and grow manufacturing, and that became a negative impact, a deterrent to that investment because it added significant costs to operations here." It can be awkward and create challenges for employers, said Howcroft, with questions around who pays for the medical certifi- cate, who pays for the evidence? "And when you have large pro- duction lines, employing hun- dreds of thousands of employees, you just can't jeopardize the line not being able to operate, so you often have to overstaff lines and have people around just in case because you don't know how many people will show or not show." However, the changes don't separate out whether the illness leave days are sick days or whether they can be used for family mem- bers, said Di Francesco, "so there's probably going to be some confu- sion for employers and employees as to whether paid sick leave en- titlement that an employer pro- vides are a greater benefit or not than these unpaid ESA days." But the pilot project might be a first step, she said, and there may be further consultation and consideration as to whether ad- ditional changes should apply to this industry and others. Leaves 'disruptive to business and cost money' PILOT < pg. 3 "It was hard to manage, it was having a negative impact." And the award goes to… Nominate a colleague whose contributions deserve your recognition. 2017 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE Celebrate an unsung HR champion — recognize someone who brings innovative thinking, people-driven strategy, and true business value to their organization with a nomination for their outstanding work. Nominations are open to any CHRP, CHRL or CHRE in good standing. The nomination process is simple, find out how at: hrpa.ca/awards

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