HR Compliance for the Hybrid Workplace
The Ontario Employment Law Conference is the best opportunity for employers to Learn the Latest about evolving and challenging HR compliance requirements for the changing workplace.
9:00 am
Welcome and Conference Opening
9:05 am
Allison Taylor
Workplace Harassment: Legal Compliance and Beyond
- Obligations under the OHRC and the OHSA
- Harassment in the remote workplace
- Harassment and just cause vs willful misconduct under the ESA (Thyssenkrupp Elevator case
- Overview of best practices for responding to and preventing harassment complaints
- Sexual harassment is not an independent tort (Incognito v. Sky service Business Aviation, 2022 ONSC 1795)
9:50 am
Jeremy Schwartz
The Post-Pandemic Workplace
- Do vaccination policies matter anymore?
- Potential long term implications of caselaw arising from the pandemic
- Can employers force employees back to the office?
- Revisiting your policies (accommodation, sick leaves, remote work) in the wake of the pandemic
10:30 am
Q&A + Break
10:45 am
Landon Young
Wrongful Dismissal Law Roundup
- Deductibility of CERB benefits from wrongful dismissal damages: Yates v. Langley Motor Sport Centre Ltd. (2022 BCCA 398)
- Notice period awards:
- Currie v Nylene Canada: 26 month notice period
- Failure to mitigate:
- Humphrey v. Mene
- Quesnelle v. Camus
- Enforceability of termination clauses:
- Humphrey v. Mene, 2021 ONSC 2539Perretta v. Rand A Technology Corporation, 2021 ONSC 2111Rahman: legal advice/sophisticated party doesn’t matter
- Henderson v. Slavkin: confidentiality and conflict of interest clauses undid termination clause
11:15 am
Ryan Conlin
Managing the Risk of Millions of Dollars in OHS Liability for Contractors
- The OHSA treats employers as legally responsible for the health and safety of sub-contracted workers. Contractors must be pro-actively managed to avoid sky high fines.
- How to pre-qualify contractors
- Strategies for creating an effective documentary record of due diligence
- The special challenge of expert contractors
- The consequences of the up- coming blockbuster Supreme Court decision in Sudbury
11:45 am
Morning Sessions Q&A
12:15 pm
Lunch Break
1:15 pm
Jeff Murray
Common, Related and Successor Employer Liabilities Explained and How to Avoid Them
- Related and successor employer concepts under legislation explained
- The concept of “common employer” under the common law
- Recent “related employer” cases reviewed: Turkiewicz (Tomasz Turkiewicz Custom Masonry Homes) v. Bricklayers, Masons Independent Union of Canada, Local 1 (Turkiewicz) and Enercare Home & Commercial Services Limited Partnership v. UNIFOR Local 975 (Enercare)
- What is a “sale of business” and how employee liabilities and union representation rights can flow in a corporate transaction
- Tips for avoiding related and successor employer liabilities
2:00 pm
First Reference Product Demo
2:15 pm
Haadi Malik
Compliance with the Employment Standards Act, 2000
- Overview of new policy requirements
- New rules for Gig workers
- Prohibition on non-competes
- Most recent enforcement activity
- Paying Overtime and Common Mistakes Made By Employers
- Leaves of Absences and EI Sickness Benefits Changes (impact on wage-loss plans)
2:45 pm
Break
3:00 pm
Landon Young
Jeff Murray
Jeremy Schwartz
Privacy Law Developments
- Vicarious liability of employers for acts of employees: Ari v. Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, where the British Columbia Supreme Court (the Court)
- Privacy tort does not apply when companies with personal information stored for commercial purposes are hacked: Owsiankik v. Equifax
Employment Litigation in the Post-Pandemic World
- How the courts are hearing cases and post-pandemic backlog
- What to expect at the Human Rights Tribunal
- Ontario Labour Relations Board
Human Rights Law Update
- Jurisdiction over human rights complaints
- Gender discrimination found on basis of comparator group: Ontario (Health) v. Association of Ontario Midwives
- Overview of damages awards
3:50 pm
Afternoon Sessions Q&A
4:00 pm
