www.lexpert.ca/usguide | LEXPERT • June 2018 | 57
Richard Charney of Norton Rose
Fulbright LLP in Toronto. "For those
advocates who say it shouldn't have an
impact on employment, that's naïve. e
concern is it might discourage further or
continued employment."
More complicated, says Charney, are
the "equal pay for equal work" provi-
sions in the Act, which aren't about
gender-based pay equity. "We're talking
about a fairly radical step of prohibiting
employers from paying part-time casual
and seasonal employees a rate lower than
full-time employees.
"I understand the policy behind it — to
try and benefit traditionally disadvantaged
workers — but what this legislation fails
to take into account is the lack of experi-
ence these folks may have compared to
full-time employees. It will also require
employers to engage in costly and time-
consuming reviews of all the roles and
wages to determine whether the jobs fall
under that," says Charney.
e changes have prompted employ-
ers to review their employment policies
to ensure they are in line with the new
minimum requirements, says Daryl
Cukierman, a partner at Blake, Cassels &
Graydon LLP in Toronto.
Of course, also impacting employers
this year will be the introduction of canna-
bis legalization in Canada. "We're starting
to get more calls on it and absolutely I
think it's going to be a function of being
clear in setting expectations and remind-
ing employees of expectations around
drug and alcohol use in the workplace and
that may require employers to take a look
at current policies and make sure they
still read how they want in light of the
new legislation coming down and provide
refresher training on expectations," says
Cukierman. "e expectation should be
employees come to work fit to perform
their duties."
He recommends employers take a
proactive approach given that cannabis
will no longer be an "illegal" drug.
"It is possible that employee attitudes
about what constitutes acceptable
workplace behavior may shi, so I'm
advising employers to get ahead of the
curve and proactively deal with poten-
tial misunderstandings and look at code
of conduct and occupational health and
safety polices related to smoking at work
and workplace impairment and vehicle-
use policies," he says.
Extensions of that are client or social
and entertainment policies. "Most
employers will allow an employee to take a
client out for dinner and drinks, but what
about when marijuana becomes legal?
Despite its legality, are employers going to
take a different line on that?"
Ontario is not the only province
revamping its employment laws.
In British Columbia (BC) , the New
Democratic Party (NDP) government is
looking at changes to the Labour Relations
Code that would allow for moving from a
secret ballot to a card system for union
certification. Employers are concerned
that a secret ballot system prevents
employees from being intimidated by
co-workers into certification.
"What the NDP would like to do is
move to a card-only system so, if a union
is capable of getting more than 50 per cent
of the employees from the bargaining unit
to sign cards, there would be an automatic
certification without a vote," says Michael
Howcro, a partner with Blake, Cassels &
Graydon LLP in Vancouver.
As well, BC's minimum wage increased
effective Sept. 15, 2017, to C$11.35 per
hour from C$10.85. It's the first step in a
plan to raise the minimum wage to C$15
per hour by 2021.
e wage increases apply to employees in
several categories: live-in support worker;
live-in camp leader; resident caretaker;
farm workers; and liquor servers.
Premier John Horgan also announced
the intention to re-establish a human
