Considering firing an underachieving long-time employee without providing just cause or even tendering them a severance package?
Your best bet is to consult the new provincial Employment Standards Act (ESA), or you could be paying through the nose.
Though the act came into effect on Sept. 4, employment standards officer Robert Unger finds many employers in the Sudbury area still remain in the dark as to what the act entails; that is until he comes calling on them after a complaint has been filed. That is why Unger was the featured speaker at a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Nov. 15, delivering a primer on the changes to the fine-tuned provincial labour legislation.
The ESA remains basically unchanged, says Unger. However, employers can no longer feign ignorance of the basics of the legislation because they will be required to have a posted copy of the ESA guide at their place of business. Those attending the session received free complimentary copies of the poster.
After Dec. 21 they will have to fork over $6.25 for a copy, or be susceptible to a $250 fine.
Changes to the act include modifications to overtime, vacation pay and unpaid emergency leaves of absence of up to 10 days for companies with 50 or more employees. The ESA also has teeth, empowering officers to assess a set of escalating fines against repeat offenders, starting at $250 per employee.
Pregnancy leave cases have to be handled with extreme sensitivity, cautions Unger in delivering a warning out to any employers contemplating using a pregnancy situation as an excuse to shuffle a female employee out the door.
"My advice is very simple," Unger says. "Be nice to that person and say 'when is the baby shower?' because the maximum penalty for violating pregnancy and parental leave provisions can be as high as $98,000. "You're basically paying that person's pain and suffering. You're paying until that person has another job at the same rate or until that person settles."
One loophole on the employee's side regarding pregnancy leave is that they can take off from their jobs once their leave expires and begin work for someone else with no recourse available for employers.
And verbal agreements between employers and employees, Unger says, are a strict no-no under the act. In cases of settling on hours of work or disciplinary action on the job, always put it in writing.
Should an employment standards officer show up at your business because of a filed complaint, you will find that the Ministry of Labour is very strict about keeping employment records for three years, including employee names, addresses and hours worked each day and week.
To keep abreast of the paperwork, should the matter ever go to court, Unger advises keeping an employee dossier or a daily diary similar to the notebooks carried by police officers - written in pen, noting dates, times and details.
