HRM 899 Labour Relations : Ontario Human Rights Code

2. Outline the responsibilities of the manager and of the HR advisor in handing these grievances. Specifically: (can be written bullet form)

• The role of the manager and their responsibilities.

• The role of HR and their responsibilities. 
 

3. Outline the advice you will provide to the manager on the steps they need to take to respond to the grievances. Specifically, on these three steps: (can be written in bullet form)

• Meeting with the grievor and union representative. Included in the advice is the purpose of the meeting; how to conduct the meeting; the timeliness of the meeting and what will be the next steps the manager will take after the meeting.

• The investigation and gathering of the information. Included in the advice is who the manager should speak to; key elements to investigate (Who? What? Where? When? Why? Plus How?); timeliness, thoroughness and gathering relevant documents. Please include five questions that the manager should ask in the investigation. Note: tailor the advice based on the situation you described in point

• The preparation of the grievance response. Included in the advice is what should be included in the response and who to seek advice from in preparing the response. You are required to prepare a draft letter of response to share with the manager. 

Answer:

1. The purpose of the assignment is to point out the workplace grievances that are common but important in nature. There are certain rules regarding the proper management of the employment relationship and the management has to take careful mentality to deal with certain sensitive issues like termination of the employees (Banks, 2016). In Canada, there are two types of employment relations can be seen- unionised and non-unionised. The principle of fairness at work is depending on the employment relationship and employees have certain duties while performing their job. It has been mentioned under the Employment Standard Act 2000 that the employees should maintain a proper working environment during the course of their business and if they have failed to do so, the employer may terminate them (Mohamed, 2014). A similar situation has cropped up in this case

It has been mentioned by Leanne E. Standryk that duty to work is the base of every employment relationship. It is a common rule that the employees will get their remuneration if they perform work and their stability is depending on the way of working. It is the duty of the employers to manage the workplace environment in a systematic way and concentrate on the performance of the employees (Apaza & Chang, 2017). There are certain legislations dealing with the employment-based problems in Canada such as Employment Standards Act 2000, Ontario Human Rights Code, Workplace Safety and Insurance Act and Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Wilful misconduct by an employee arose when the employee has made violation to the employment rules. A wilful misconduct may happen such as negligent act, bad intention, and intentional disregard to the interest of the employers by various ways. If an employee is terminated from his post due to wilful misconduct, he shall not be able get any benefit from the employers (Lusty, 2014). In this case, it has been observed that his employer is terminating the employee on the ground of wilful misconduct.

Following are the types of wilful misconduct that may take place during the work session by the employees:

The employers can treat tardiness or irregularity as wilful misconduct when the employees are repeated it irrespective of the warning. In every company, there are certain employment rules present to regulate the performance of the employees. When an employee violates the rule knowingly, it can be treated as wilful misconduct (Amato-Gauci et al., 2017). If an employee violates the standard of behaviour and ill-treats the employer, it causes wilful misconduct. If an employee acts in negligent and damage the property of the workplace, it can be considered as wilful misconduct. Except these provisions, unsatisfactory work performance by the employee and use of drug during the working hour can also be treated as wilful misconduct.

2: In Canada, the unionised employees are enjoying certain benefits and rights. The rights are particularly known as the Weingarten right. These rights are exercised on the workers who are governed by the collective bargaining agreement (Southey, 2014). According to this right, the employees can appoint a union representative on their behalf to be present in the meeting. Therefore, it is the duty of the managers to take care of these rights of the employees in case of any misconduct. The managers are playing an important role regarding the allegation of grievance regarding the termination of an employee over wilful misconduct. He has to take care of every rights of the unionised employee and follow the rules in a systematic manner.

The HR advisors are also playing an important role regarding the termination of an employee. They will talk to the employee regarding the termination clauses and can represent the griever or the complainant at the meeting on request. The employers are getting support and advice from him regarding the grievance (Simon, 2014). It is the duty of the HR supervisor to keep the discussion private and provide effective strategic plans to resolve the matter in dispute.

3. It can be stated therefore that in case of terminate a unionised employee in Canada, meeting is an inevitable thing. The purpose of the meeting is to talk about the rights of the unionised employee and the misconduct performed by him during the job and to resolve the disagreement in a fruitful manner. Meeting facilitates the communication in between the management and the employees. It is duty of the manager to decide a specific time for the meeting and inform the employee and his representative regarding the same. The manager should take care of the disciplinary action and follow the legislation in an appropriate manner so that the rights of the employees regarding the Weingarten rights could not be violated. The meeting can be conducted by the supervision of the manager and HR advisor. If the meeting is not getting succeed or resolve the matter in dispute, the next step for the manager can be to go to the Arbitrators for a better result.

According to Employment Standard Act, if an employee is not satisfied regarding their standard right, they can ask for an investigation. The meeting process regarding the termination of employee has three steps (Estreicher & Hirsch, 2013). In the last step, arbitrators are given the power to investigate into the matter and resolve the dispute. The Labour Relation Code and Human Rights Code are the governing legislation in this case. The managers should speak to the arbitrators regarding the investigation. The investigation should be made by appropriate persons and in the presence of both the parties. The private issues should be remained confidential in nature.

The grievance response should be written in a uniform way. There should be certain provisions and all must be written with perfect clarification. It is always advisable to first conduct a preliminary assessment of the complaint and determine what it is about. The nature of the complaint and the parties involved will dictate a number of secondary considerations and responses, in terms of how urgently the complaint must be dealt with and whether external law enforcement should be involved or not. The response will also cover whether an internal or external investigator is appropriate and the amount of resources that should be allocated to the investigation, and what specialized expertise may be required. The policies are to be chalked out in a systematic manner and the disclosed documents should be mentioned in the response note.

Reference:

Amato-Gauci, L., Hearn, G., Stoll, K., Reive, J., & Fernandes, R. (2017). FIRM AND INDUSTRY NEWS.

Apaza, C. R., & Chang, Y. (2017). Effective Whistleblowing Conceptual Framework. In Whistleblowing in the World (pp. 1-8). Springer International Publishing.

Banks, K. (2016). Reasonable Accommodation As Equal Opportunity in Canadian Employment Law.

Blyschak, P. (2014). Corporate Liability for Foreign Corrupt Practices under Canadian Law. McGill Law Journal/Revue de droit de McGill, 59(3), 655-705.

Estreicher, S., & Hirsch, J. M. (2013). Comparative Wrongful Dismissal Law: Reassessing American Exceptionalism.

Kanamugire, J. C. (2014). The Impact of the Companies Act 71 of 2008 on the Traditional Director’s Duty to Avoid Conflict of Interest. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(9), 75.

Lusty, D. (2014). Revival of the common law offence of misconduct in public office. Crim LJ, 38, 337-363.

Mohamed, A. A. A. (2014). Dismissal from Employment and the Remedies. LexisNexis.

Simon, P. (2014). Termination of Employment in England and Canada (Doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto (Canada)).

Southey, K. (2014). Contributory misconduct reductions in unfair dismissal remedies. Australian Bulletin of Labour, 40(1), 24.