Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER JULY 2018 10 NEWS Act, which allow discrimination against workers 65 and older with respect to benefits plans, is a total exclusion of the right to have discrimination issues con- sidered. And the Human Rights Code provision, which (Grant) has found unconstitutional, basi- cally eliminates the possibility of raising the issue with the tribu- nal, and that's why it was found unconstitutional." "It tidies up really what should have been addressed back then." In 2005, it was an intentional decision when the Ontario gov- ernment specifically excluded benefits, said Legault. "They abolished mandatory retirement, saying, 'Oh, that's age discrimination,' and they purpose- ly and intentionally said we are not touching the benefits section," she said, adding there could be another challenge at some point around workers' compensation for the same reason. But with this decision, and the extension of benefits past 65, more people might choose to work past that age, said Legault. "at will then mean those ac- tuarial numbers… are going to be wrong because they were trying to say, 'Don't worry, there aren't that many (older workers), the cost isn't going to be that high,' but if you have all the people who desperately need benefits self- selecting to stay on and get in the benefits plans, I think the cost may very well be higher than what the tribunal anticipated." e decision really recognizes that there are more older people working now, said Renu Mand- hane, chief commissioner at the Ontario Human Rights Com- mission in Toronto, "and that they should be treated equally compared to younger workers. And to that extent I think the de- cision really sends the message that older workers are valuable, it disrupts stereotypes about their capabilities and their worth in the workplace, and it recognizes that they make a contribution to the workplace and they should not receive less compensation as a result of their age." Implications for employers Many employers across Ontario may be required to change group health, dental and life insurance benefit plans if they offer fewer or no benefits to employees age 65 and older compared to younger employees, according to the OHRC. "Employees should not face blanket exclusions because of their age: instead, age-based distinc- tions in benefits should be based on accepted insurance practice and credible actuarial data." It will now be up to employers to consider where their benefits plans may raise human rights is- sues, said Mandhane. "They should look at their benefits plans and ideally obtain legal advice in terms of how the decision in Talos may affect the eligibility for older workers in their workplace." e Talos decision is not say- ing any differential treatment of older workers in benefits plans will violate the code, said Ryder, "but there has to be a right to raise those issues, and there has to be a more nuanced approach, and employers will have to justify any differential treatment of older workers as bona fide occupational requirements, and show that the different treatment is necessary to maintain the sustainability of the benefits plan, and that a more generous approach would amount to undue hardship." While there might be adjust- ments to the scope of an employ- er's benefits in order to sustain the sustainability of a plan, "to have a complete denial of benefits if you turn 65 will be very diffi- cult for the employer to justify," he said, adding the issue will also have to be addressed in collective agreements to make sure they're brought into compliance. In unionized environments, employers may now argue they have to cover more people with less, rather than few people with more, so "there will be certainly be some interesting bargaining going on," said Legault. "For non- union (workplaces), it's up to the employer to do the costing but still try to keep good employee rela- tions and good employee morale." Really, it's the insurance com- panies that write the policies se- lected by employers, she said. Several insurance companies are reviewing this decision, ac- cording to Craig Anderson, vice- president and general counsel at the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association in Toronto. "With more people working longer and putting off retirement, employers and insurers continue to look at their benefit plans to ensure they meet the needs of a changing society." good corporate citizen, he said, but to reach a vast, un- touched market of under- employed workers. "is isn't a corporate social responsibility media piece for consumption by corporate com- munications teams, this is really an HR-focused initiative which is aimed at achieving a social good, but it will also support businesses by allowing them to hire, train, retain a section of the popula- tion which, frankly, they probably haven't got too much experience in hiring today. It's quite a missed opportunity," said Derham. e program will also monitor how well young people are doing throughout their early careers. "I'm going to be tracking not just the hiring rate for NEET youth, but also their retention rates and their career growth within the organizations," he said. "I'd like to see those high targets met but, just as importantly, I'd like to have clear evidence that these youth are succeeding in the workplace, that they're not just joining. And that it's not all going horribly wrong af- ter a few weeks, that they're man- aging to succeed and blossom in these places of work." e first step is a job fair, taking place at the end of June in Rexdale, Ont., he said, and the group hopes to steer NEET youth into more substantial careers. "We're spending time as a coali- tion looking at ways in which we could come up with sort of career- lathering mechanisms between different coalition employers so that, for example, somebody who might start as a barista at Starbucks goes on to work in a customer-care capacity at Telus," said Derham. "It will be a tragedy if, after five years, we realize that we've hired 40,000 people but 39,000 of them hadn't survived their probation periods." e tracking initiative is sorely needed because "data on this de- mographic is sparse. When you talk to federal government, pro- vincial government or even city (government) — even the youth agencies themselves — it can be very hard to actually ascertain the number of youth that are being hired," he said. "(We'll be) working closely with employers to have them upfront commit to sharing baseline infor- mation on their interviewing, and then hiring and onboarding, and who are then also surviving train- ing periods, probation periods." Opportunity for All Youth's mandate is to ensure the partici- pating companies do not operate in a vacuum, said Derham. "We are working hard with the employers to make sure that best practices are being shared within the coalition to ensure that people are being onboarded properly, in an appropriate fashion and trained and encouraged to succeed." Barriers to employment For frontline workers at youth employment agencies, the NEET initiative is welcome. "Starbucks have been a great advocate of employing youth that often have certain barriers to employment — be it lack of education, or a new Canadian or economic issues," said Timothy Lang, president and CEO at YES (Youth Employment Services) in Toronto. "is new initiative is just tak- ing that one step further, working with other businesses to try to en- courage them to also give people a chance, because it really changes their lives and creates more pros- perity, not only for the individuals but for the regions that we live in." Often, NEET youth face a range of barriers that handicap their efforts to enter the work- force, he said. "Many of them could be just the educational barriers that some youth just didn't complete high school or didn't like the school setting. And then when they go to look for work, the minimum re- quirement might be high school or more," said Lang. "Sometimes they have eco- nomic barriers, they come from a disadvantaged economic back- ground or family, so that they don't even have the right clothes to go do an interview, or have nev- er been trained on how to perform a proper interview, or even dress properly, or resumé writing." A lot of youth are not well- versed at communicating, said Clay Shaw, operations manager at Saskatoon Community Youth Arts Programming (SCYAP). "We're seeing an increase of social anxiety. And I'm not an ex- pert of why obviously. However, I really believe that social media and cellphone misuse is some of the reasons." "ey kind of hide behind the whole social media platform and their communication skills are lacking because, perhaps they're in their parents' basements or couch-surfing at a friend's house where they're not going out into the world and making themselves employable, getting skills, increas- ing their communication skills," he said. "ey're really hiding behind computers and tablets and cell- phones… and being exposed to stuff on the internet — it desensi- tizes them to some of the violence and extreme behaviours." Promising ROI ere are direct economic ben- efits for companies hoping to tap into the youth market, according to Lang. "e return on investment from every $1 for government funding returns — from our analysis — is at least three, sometimes five to seven, back to the economy." As well, the youth are often very productive employees, he said. "Sometimes, when businesses take a chance... they realize they could be very, very valuable em- ployees for the long term," said Lang. When Starbucks first began a youth-hiring initiative, it part- nered with the City of Toronto. "We had relationships with government, with not-for-profit, and certainly Mayor (John) Tory in Toronto. He invited us to help the city reduce youth unemploy- ment in the city's 'needs-improve- ment areas,'" said Girotto. e company dedicated 10 per cent of all job hires in Toronto to this group and in the first year, it hit the 10 per cent target. "We overshot actually," she said. Looking ahead, the eight com- panies hope to expand the pro- gram to Vancouver, Calgary, Ot- tawa, Montreal and Quebec City. "It's really about scaling the ge- ography and getting the employ- ers onboard," said Girotto. "Forty thousand jobs for youth that are disconnected now is an ambitious number. And, really, it should be just the first number, right? We will aim higher than that." NEET < pg. 1 Program to monitor youths' career development "(We'll be) working closely with employers to have them upfront commit to sharing baseline information on their interviewing, hiring and onboarding." More people may choose to work past age 65 BENEFITS < pg. 3

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