Employment Law for Employers: Announcement of Upcoming Presentations

As part of our ongoing commitment to public education and to assist local businesses in managing HR and employment law related issues, Doak Shirreff is pleased to again offer our Employment Law for Employers Series during the spring and summer of 2014.

In this series of free presentations, employment lawyer David M. Brown will lead conversations on a variety of topics of interest to business owners – from the duty to accommodate, to occupational health and safety, to international recruitment.

Designed to be informal, conversational and educational, these presentations will expose some of the hidden costs eating away at businesses’ bottom line, while helping managers implement strategies to meet HR related challenges.

All presentations are located in the Doak Shirreff Boardroom, 537 Leon Avenue, Kelowna BC.

To ensure an interactive presentation, space is limited to 20 participants for each presentation. For more information on presentations, please consult our Upcoming Presentations page or contact David directly.

We look forward to seeing you.

 

David M. Brown

dbrown@doakshirreff.com

Tred Carefully : Terminating Employees on Leave

Questions surrounding human rights, disabilities and the duty to accommodate are rarely simple and often misunderstood. Nowhere is this more evident than the widespread perception among workers and employers alike that employees on some form of leave from work cannot be terminated.  

Human Rights at Work: Accommodating Family Obligations

2013 presented some significant new case law, but the Federal Court of Canada’s decision in Attorney General of Canada v. Johnstone was among the most important. In this key case, the Court upheld the decision of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that “family status” under the Canadian Human Rights Act includes an employer’s duty to provide accommodation for an employee’s childcare needs.

Closed for the Holidays? Mandatory Vacations and the Duty to Accommodate Religious Observance

Across Canada, it is not uncommon for many small businesses to close their operations for the period between Christmas and New Years. There are many good reasons for this, as business owners may be looking for family time while the kids are out of school, a visit to parents in distant cities, or a winter escape to Mexico.

For the owner/operator, closing a business for a period of time may be as simple as hanging a sign in the door which reads “Closed for the Holidays”. However, for two important reasons, this decision becomes more complicated when a business has employees to consider :

1. Can a business require employees to take their vacations at specific times, such as over the Christmas holidays?
2. If so, does imposing vacation over a Christian holiday, such as Christmas or Easter, have human rights implications for a diverse workforce that does not necessarily follow Western-Christian heritage?