Legal/Regulatory Environment

Employment Regulations Canadian employment regulations are very much like the United States employment laws. There are a vast array of topics that are covered under the title employment law, with extensive clauses and situations under each and every one. This is a brief summary of the laws for wages and pay, hours of work, dismissed, terminated or laid off employees, leave from jobs, statutory holidays, and sexual harassment. Under the topic of wages and pay there are a few subcategories such as minimum wage, overtime pay, holiday pay, and vacation pay. Minimum wage is decided by each territory and all employees except for registered apprentices must receive at least minimum wage. Some exceptions are if the employer provides room and board to an employee then wages may be reduced but not by more than 50 cents per meal and 60 cents per day for lodging. (labour.gc.ca) So for example, say an employer offers 2 meals a day ($1.00) and lodging (60 cents), then each day a total of $1.60 will be deducted from the employees pay. An addition onto these rules are if an employer calls an employee in for work they are required to pay the employee at least three hours worth of pay regardless of if the employee stays the full time or actually does any work. Overtime pay is pretty straightforward. Employees can work 8 hours a day resulting in 40 hours a week at max before overtime kicks in. Overtime pay is one and half times of what employees are currently making. So for example say an employee is making 8 dollars an hour and in one week works 50 hours. For the first 40 hours the employee would be paid 8 dollars an hour but for the extra 10 hours they would be paid 12 dollars an hour. (labour.gc.ca)For holiday pay there are nine statutory holidays each year that every company must recognize. They are: New Years Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. All of these days, employees get off with pay. There are a few

exceptions thought. If New Years Day, Canada Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day, or Boxing Day falls on a weekend that you would normally be not working, you are entitled to a holiday with pay on the working day either immediately before or after the holiday. Another exception is if one of the other holidays falls on a weekend, then your employer is responsible for adding a holiday with pay to your annual vacation time or give you a paid day off at another mutually convenient time. (labour.gc.ca) For vacation pay there are two versions one is if you are entitled to two weeks vacations leave and the employees vacation pay is four percent of your earnings for the entitlement year. On the other hand if you are entitled to three weeks vacation, your pay is six percent of your earnings for the year. In most circumstances employees are given their employment pay within fourteen days before the employees vacation begins, but the employer maintains the right to pay you either during or immediately after your vacation. An addition to this law, if you leave your job, your employer must pay you any vacation time owed, you are also entitled to the vacation pay for the period you have worked during the current year of employment. The second category is laws about employees being dismissed, terminated, or laid off. A group of employees is considered to be 50 or more and a group termination requires that employers notify key players at least 16 weeks in advance of the terminations taking effect. When it comes to a group of employees being terminated, employers must provide workers with the opportunity to review the situation, think up other solutions, and if that doesnt work employers must also ease the transition process from their jobs now to their future jobs. (labour.gc.ca) Most employers must create a committee to develop an adjustment program. There is also severance pay, which is compensation that is meant to ease the transition between jobs for employees recently let off. In order to collect severance pay, an employee must have worked 12

consecutive months for the employer before the employee was terminated. Employees are entitled to two days of regular wages for each full year that they worked for the employer. The minimum for severance pay is 5 days wages, which is 2 and a half years of work for an employer. The next category is laws for employees taking leave from work. The first topic is sick leave, employees are entitled to sick leave protection if they have worked for the same employer for at least three consecutive months. The Canada Labour Code protects federally regulated workers from any kind of adverse employment action due to illness or injury. Employees are protected for any absence less than 12 weeks. The second topic under employee leave is when an employee is faced with leaving work due to a work-related illness or injury. Employers are not allowed to subject any employee to an adverse employment action who takes leave for this reason. Employees will be able to maintain their seniority during their absence and are guaranteed a job upon returning although not necessarily the same job if you can no longer perform the tasks required. (labour.gc.ca)The fourth topic is maternity related reassignment and leave. This allows pregnant women to ask their employers to either modify their job or reassign them if their current occupation poses a risk to either the mother or the unborn child. A medical certificate is required for this to take place. Once again the mother is protected from being either terminated, suspended, or otherwise punished for this. The next topic is compassionate care leave, which is when an employee takes time off to look for a family member who is gravely ill. An employee is allowed to take up to eight weeks off although they will not be paid for that time. While taking off you are guaranteed job security and though you will not be paid you may be eligible for compassionate care benefits.(labour.gc.ca) Upon returning to work the employee must supply a medical certificate stating the family member was gravely ill. The sixth topic is

bereavement leave, which is when an employee takes time off for the death of an immediate family member. In order to be eligible for the paid bereavement leave the employee must have worked for at least three consecutive months beforehand. If not you are not entitled to paid leave. This benefit allows the employee to three consecutive working days off and begin the day after the death occurs. The final topic is reservist leave which applies to employees who need time off to go through either annual military training or operations. Employees are not paid for this leave. The final category in employment law is sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is considered any action that is likely to cause offence or humiliation or be perceived to place the employee in a situation which can be classified as quid pro quo or a hostile environment. Employers are responsible to take every action possible to ensure that employees arent subjected to any form of sexual harassment in the workplace. (labour.gc.ca) Industrial/Union Relations Relations between employers and employees have always been a rough topic because both parties want different things. Employers are looking to make the most profit using whichever strategy they choose and employees are looking for a secure job that gives them internal and external benefits. With this difference between needs creating problems, unions were created to settle things and collective bargaining was put into effect to blur the lines between the goals of the two parties. Canadian unions were known to have many strikes and during the period of mass unionization there was a high amount of violence and illegal actions due to the unions. Many employers had a lot of tension and anger towards unions and the employees within them. Over time as unions became more common and the two parties learned to worked together the tension

and strikes have decreased drastically. (thecanadiaencyclopedia.com) After the 50s Canada became more industrialized and eventually caught up to the level of unionization commonly found in the United States. On the other hand there is industrial relations, which didnt become a common topic until after World War II. The main reason that this came about is because of World War II. With the war came mass industrialization throughout the country due to all the war-time industries that were developed. (thecanadiaencyclopedia.com)The two categories go hand in hand and encourage continued growth within Canada. Immigration Policies When it comes to Immigration Policies there are two departments that handle most of the laws and issues as they arise. There is the Citizenship and Immigration (CIC) department and the Canada Employment and Immigration Commission (CEIC). The CIC is the department of the government that is responsible for immigration citizenship and was established in 1994. (oagbvg.gc.ca)The CEIC was created in 1977 when the Department of Manpower and Immigration and the Unemployment Insurance Commission were united. The CEIC is responsible for employment and unemployment insurance programs. (oag-bvg.gc.ca) The Department is responsible for the creation and implementation of federal policies and programs in relation to the labour market and immigration. The Interim Federal Health Program Policy (IFHP) was created to provide limited and temporary, taxpayer-funded health-care benefits for protected people, refugee claimants, and other groups or are not eligible for provincial or territory health insurance. (cic.gc.ca)Another policy is the IRPA of 2002 which provides the legislative authority for Canadas immigration program. The IRPA contains many parts that allow the Minister to create special instructions for immigration officers so that the government can achieve their immigration goals. (cic.gc.ca)