2010 Seminars

Employment Law Update

1. Human Rights: How are courts interpreting human rights issues?
2. Employment Contracts: Tips for drafting enforceable employment contracts. The latest view from the bench.
3. Mental Distress Damages: What type of conduct will cost you more?
4. Restrictive Covenants: An employeeÕs obligations post-employment.

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act

This new law requires provincially regulated employers to comply with the requirements of a variety of Accessibility Standards - beyond the existing accommodation requirements in the Ontario Human Rights Code. Failure to comply may result in an administrative fine of up to $100,000.

Phase one involves the implementation of a Customer Service Accessibility Standard, requiring organizations to develop extensive policies and practices relating to the delivery of goods and services to people with disabilities, and to provide relevant training to staff. Public sector employers must be in full compliance by January 1, 2010; private sector employers by January 1, 2012.

At this HReview Seminar attendees will learn:

1. What does the Customer Service Accessibility Standard require?
2. Nuts and bolts of the policies and programs employers must have in place to comply with the Customer Service Accessibility Standard.
3. The training employers should provide to employees.

Disability Related Misconduct: Discipline or Accommodation?

1. Can an employer dismiss an employee for misconduct caused by a disability, or does the ‘duty to accommodate’ apply?
2. Must an employer investigate whether a disability played a role in an employee’s misconduct prior to imposing discipline?
3. Must an employee disclose a disability in order to trigger accommodation?
4. Are last chance agreements enforceable?
5. Can an employer require an employee who has been involved in addiction-related misconduct to undergo random drug testing?

Bill 168
Violence and Harassment in the Workplace
A Practical Guide to Managing The New Law

Slated to become law on June 15, 2010, Bill 168 amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act and places obligations on employers never before seen in Ontario.

At this HReview Seminar attendees will learn:

1. What are an employer's obligations under the new law?
2. The nuts and bolts of the policies and programs every employer must have in place.
3. What is a “risk assessment” and how is it performed?
4. What steps can be taken now to ensure workplace compliance before June 15, 2010?
5. What is at risk for a non-compliant employer?

Frequently Asked Employment & Labour Law Questions – And Then Some!

1. Our business is down. Can we just lay off some of our employees?
2. We have an employee who has been off sick for two months and won’t say when he is coming back to work. Can we treat him as having quit or abandoned his employment?
3. We want to change a few things in our pension plan / group health plan / long & short disability plan. Can we do this? How?
4. There have been a number of incidents of theft / property damage on our workplace. We’d like to install surveillance cameras. Can we?
5. What are our obligations toward an employee returning from maternity leave?
   • What if the replacement employee is a better worker and I would prefer to keep him/her?
   • What if the returning employee’s position does not exist any longer?
   • What if there has been a reorganization of the workplace the returning employee’s position is now performed by three people in different departments?