A new year is a time for resolutions. This e-Lert is not intended to impose additional pressure and new demands on already busy professionals; it is intended to provide a checklist of best practices and compliance obligations for 2014.
- Policies: A number of HR policies are mandatory and require consideration at least once a year. This category includes your occupational health and safety policy, your workplace harassment prevention policy and your workplace violence prevention policy. Effective January 1, 2014, large private sector employers (with 50 or more employees) join public sector employers in the requirement to have developed and implemented an accessibility policy and a multi-year accessibility plan. Small private sector employers have another year to have developed and implemented their accessibility policy; they are not obliged to prepare a multi-year accessibility plan. Other HR policies do not require an annual review, although we do recommend that your other HR policies, including broader discrimination and harassment policies and vacation and leave policies are reviewed at least every three years to ensure ongoing compliance with changing standards.
- Training: There are two new training requirements on the horizon.
a) The first deadline is July 1, 2014,
to have implemented an occupational health and safety awareness
training program for supervisors and employees. There are a number
of mandatory topics for this training program including the duties
and rights of workers, supervisors and employers under the
Occupational Health and Safety Act; the roles of health
and safety representatives and joint health and safety committees
as well as the Ministry of Labour and the Workplace Safety and
Insurance Board in identifying and responding to common workplace
hazards; the requirements under the WHMIS regulation; and
occupational illness, including the notion of latency.
Supervisors' training must also include how to recognize,
assess and control workplace hazards; how to evaluate controls on
workplace safety; and sources of information on occupational health
and safety.
b) The second deadline is January 1, 2015, for large private sector
employers to have trained employees, volunteers and contractors
providing services on accessibility and accommodation issues
pertaining to persons with disabilities. For small private sector
employers the deadline is January 1, 2016.
In addition, we recommend revisiting when you last conducted
workplace harassment, discrimination and violence prevention
training. It may very well be time to do a refresher to keep
these obligations fresh within your organization.
- Contracts: There have been a number of court decisions in the past few years that should prompt a review of termination provisions in existing employment agreements and offer letters. Revising the template offer letter to reflect best practices is strongly recommended. Where the termination provision needs to be updated for existing employees, careful consideration is required to ensure that any changes are enforceable later.
- Employment Standards Compliance: Overtime and vacation pay compliance remain perennial issues given the quirks of employment standards legislation. If these issues haven't been reviewed in recent years, there's no time like the present to limit liability. This is particularly important given the Ontario government's proposed legislation to remove the $10,000 cap on wage awards under the Employment Standards Act, 2000.
- Postings: How big are your bulletin boards? Statutory and regulatory requirements demand the following postings:
- the Ministry of Labour's "What You Should Know About the Ontario Employment Standards Act" poster
- a copy of the Occupational Health and Safety Act
- your health and safety policy
- your pay equity plan
- your workplace harassment and violence prevention policies
- where applicable, signs about smoking areas in the workplace
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
