Hrmt 306 Employment Law : Assessment Answers

Jake, 45 years old, worked for Management Co. for 15 years in a non-union position. He worked his way up from office assistant to manager of the Human Resources Department. He has acquired over the course of his employment his Human Resources Management Certificate and his Bachelor of Business Degree in his spare time. His performance reviews have been excellent, and his past supervisors speak highly of his work ethic and communication skills. 

Jake signed a new employment contract when he was promoted to his manager position. The contract outlined his work duties and responsibilities, hours of work, salary and benefits, overtime pay, bonus structure, confidentiality clauses, and termination clauses by employer and employee. 

Jake underwent a serious, necessary medical procedure that required him to take a six-week leave which was funded by his work benefits. Upon his return to work, Jake’s boss had filled his position and offered him an alternate position with a significant reduction in responsibilities and a 30% reduction in pay. 

Using your textbook and any other resources you consider relevant, please prepare a paper that answers the three questions posed below.

The three questions your paper must answer are:

1. What employment violations has the employer committed, if any?
2. What legal options does the Jake have?
3. In your opinion, how should the employer have handled this situation?

Answers:

Introduction:

Canadian Labour Code governs the employment relationship in an industry. The code has been enacted with the objective to protect the rights of the employees, put certain restriction over the employees and employers for commission or omission of certain duties. The code has been enacted to regulate the relationship between an employee and an employer in an industry.

1. According to the Part III of the Canadian Labour Code an employee can be terminated by giving a termination notice. The employer should give at least two weeks’ notice to terminate an employee. The notice of termination should contain the intention or the cause of termination of the employee (Ehrenberg & Smith, 2016). The employer is entitled to receive wages at a regular rate for the two weeks. The termination of employee shall be made according to the statute and must comply with the provisions of the Canadian Labour Code. According to the Act the employer is at liberty to terminate any employee at any time during the course of employment but the employer shall have to provide sufficient cause for the termination of the employment with a notice period of two weeks for finding a new employment (Fortin & Lemieux, 2015). The employer cannot terminate or dismiss any employee on the grounds of leave like maternity, parental, illness or injury (Section 238 of CLC) or is absent for not more than 12 weeks (Section 239 of CLC) cannot be terminated. However, if an employee is absent on the ground of medical he must submit a medical certificate within 15 days from the date of joining. Therefore, according to the given case the employer did not serve Jake any notice as to the lowering of the salary stating the changes in the job role and 30% cut off in his pay. Therefore, the employer is in contravention of the provisions of the Canadian Labour Code (Fudge & Tucker, 2015).

2. According to the Canadian labour code, Jake can get remedy under Section 240 of the code. The code states that the employer who has been unjust to the employment contract and where the employee has served more than 12month with the same employer, the employee can complain before the inspector within 90 days from the date of such lowering of salary. Jake may also file a suit against the company before the labour or industrial tribunal (Harris, & Krueger, 2015).

3. According to me the employer should have made a junior employee of the organization of the same department to do the task of Jake for the time being, would have shared, or distributed the tasks done by Jake to all other employees of the same department. However, if the employer had no options and to employ another person for doing the same task then the employer should have taken the new employee below the grade of Jake.

Conclusion:

Therefore, it can be concluded that the company has been unjust to Jake and should be penalised for non-compliance with the law. The company should have taken any other option or would have provided a proper notice as per the law for the cut off in salary.

References:

Ehrenberg, R. G., & Smith, R. S. (2016). Modern labor economics: Theory and public policy. Routledge.

Fortin, N. M., & Lemieux, T. (2015). Changes in wage inequality in Canada: An interprovincial perspective. Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, 48(2), 682-713.

Fudge, J., & Tucker, E. (2015). Labour before the law: The regulation of workers' collective action in Canada, 1900-1948. University of Toronto Press.

Harris, S. D., & Krueger, A. B. (2015). A Proposal for Modernizing Labor Laws for Twenty-First-Century Work: The" Independent Worker". Hamilton Project, Brookings.