Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER June 12, 2017 NEWS 9 There's only one designation framework that Canadian businesses value. In only 2 years, the CHRP, CHRL, and CHRE have become the benchmark for professional accreditation across Canada. It's easy to understand why, but don't take just our word for it: Out of 250 senior Canadian businesses leaders surveyed about HRPA's 3-designation framework*: 64 % believe it enhances the contribution of HR in their company 57 % believe it changes the strategic position of human resources in their company 70 % believe it enhances their view of HR's ability to find the right people for the right job CHRPs outside of Ontario, the deadline to keep your CHRP by transferring to HRPA is May 31, 2017. After that you will need to meet all new requirements. Visit hrpa.ca/keepit * LegerWeb surveys of 250 senior business leaders across Canada taken at random March 2017. For More Info: hrpa.ca/designations You deserve the designations that business leaders value "e government relied mostly on responses from an online sur- vey and spent just 36 days prepar- ing the legislation... In contrast, Ontario took two years reviewing its workplace legislation with all stakeholders before proposing changes." Highlights of changes e changes in Alberta would be extensive, but some of the high- lights include: • Employees will be eligible for leaves after 90 days, rather than one year. • Job protection for compassion- ate leave will be extended to 27 weeks, from eight weeks, to bet- ter align with federal employ- ment insurance (EI) benefits. • Caregiver status will be expand- ed to include non-primary care- givers. • Leaves will be available for mul- tiple weekly instalments within the period outlined in the medi- cal certificate, rather than the current limit of two instalments. • Job protection for maternity leave will be extended from 15 to 16 weeks to account for the one- week waiting time for federal EI benefits. • Parental leave remains at 37 weeks until the expected expan- sion of the federal EI program to 52 weeks takes place. Once that occurs, Alberta's parental leave provisions can be increased to match. • People working for an employer for 90 days will be allowed to take unpaid leave for long-term illness and injury (16 weeks), do- mestic violence (10 days), family responsibilities (five days), be- reavement (three days), a child's critical illness (36 weeks) and the disappearance or death of a child (up to two years if the child's death was caused by crime). Right now, there are no provi- sions for leave in these cases. • Overtime agreements will allow time to be banked for six months rather than the current three. Overtime would be banked at one-and-a-half hours for every hour worked instead of straight time. • All employees would be eligible for general holiday pay. Regular and non-regular day-of-work distinction would be eliminated. General holiday pay will be cal- culated simply as five per cent of wages from the previous four weeks worked. • Employees must be paid four per cent or two weeks of their total wages as vacation pay un- til they have been employed for five years, after which they must receive at least six per cent. • Employers will also be prevented from charging gas station and restaurant workers if customers leave without paying. Labour relations code changes e second part of the legislation involves changes to the labour relations code, specifically to the union certification process and arbitration. e proposed new union certi- fication process borrows from the Manitoba Labour Code, which uses a hybrid of card check and ballot votes. is means unions can be certi- fied without a secret ballot if more than 65 per cent of employees had verified membership cards. Less than 66 per cent would still require a vote. e change is an improvement, but the government didn't go far enough, according to Gil Mc- Gowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. "We are happy that the govern- ment has acknowledged that the current system for union certifi- cation is flawed. While this leg- islation doesn't bring in a more democratic model of automatic card check certification at a 50 per cent threshold, it does implement a hybrid model that allows for au- tomatic certification. is change further allows people to exercise their constitutional right to join unions and bargain collectively." Others did not agree. "The provincial government has stated that they want to align our labour relations code to fed- eral standards, but the new union certification process goes in the opposite direction to the rest of the country," said Paul de Jong, president of the Progressive Con- tractors Association of Canada. "Most voting in this country is done through secret ballot voting — which is also a cornerstone of our democracy." De Jong also took exception to the mandating of first-contract arbitration. "Forcing third-party arbitration if management and labour are not in agreement after the first collec- tive agreement is unnecessary," he said. "It takes away from the con- sultative process for both labour and management." Wildrose Leader Brian Jean called on the NDP to split the bill in two. "It's our hope that the NDP gov- ernment will recognize that these compassionate care components are separate and distinct from the labour code changes that require greater consultation." Now is simply not the time for radical labour code changes, said De Jong. "Alberta is in a difficult situ- ation," he said. "is bill means extra costs for employers and weakened investor confidence at a time when we're facing many challenges." Moira Potter is a freelance writer based in Toronto. 'Now is not the time for radical labour changes' ALBERTA < pg. 1 All employees would be eligible for general holiday pay.

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