HR DEPARTMENT
Human Resources
Management and
the Law
After reading this series of human resources manage-ment
(HRM) articles, you’re well on your way (or at
least moving in the right direction) to making sound
HRM decisions. But wait, there’s more! Your HRM needs to operate
within certain laws. Human resource managers must have some
understanding of the provincial laws that impact HRM, such as
the Saskatchewan Employment Act, workers’ compensation and
human rights.
Overtime, vacation, hours of work, age of workers, scheduling,
recordkeeping – if your operation is subject to the Saskatchewan
Employment Act, there are rules for all of these and more. The act,
which is a consolidation of 12 previous acts, covers such areas as
employment standards; occupational health and safety; radiation
health and safety; labour relations and more. Please read the rest of
the act as there may be certain items specific to your operation, as
well as to ensure your operation is covered under it.
On the provincial website, you can find an easy-read document that
provides basic guidance for the more common rules, such as over-time,
which is anything over eight hours a day or 40 hours a week. For
example, both situations earn two hours of overtime: 1) working two
days a week – one day 10 hours, another day six hours, or 2) working six
days a week – seven hours each. Modified work arrangements are per-mitted
in the legislation, for example: 10 hours per day, four days per
week. Permits are required for longer work periods without a day of
rest. More information is available at: bit.ly/skemploymentstandards.
Leave provisions are also very important. There are new leaves added
in the act and the qualifying periods for maternity, parental and adop-tion
leave have been lowered to 13 weeks.
Another area of importance is the minimum call-out pay. Most
employees get a minimum payment (minimum call-out pay) every
time their employer requires them to report for work (other than
for overtime), even if there is no work for them. Employees are to be
paid a minimum of three hours at their hourly wage. If an employee
does work, but less than three hours, the employer is still required
to pay them for a minimum of three hours of work at their hourly
wage. In previous legislation, it was at least three hours at the min-imum
wage.
For example, if an employee, who is paid $15/hour, is called in to
work and is sent home as there is no work for them, the employer
is required to pay the employee $45 (minimum three hours of work
at the employee’s hourly wage). If the same employee was called in-to
work and only worked two hours, the employer would still be re-quired
to pay the minimum call-out pay to the employee of $45.
Workers’ Compensation Act, 2013
Most operations are subject to occupational health and safety (con-tained
within the act) and the Workers’ Compensation Act, 2013. If
your employee is injured at work, workers’ compensation insurance,
delivered by the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board, pro-vides
the employee an income, can cover medical treatments and
retraining costs and prevents lawsuits. In our previous article on
safety, we referenced Bill C45. A recent case involving the duty
placed on persons directing the work of others to take reasonable
steps to prevent bodily harms to the persons performing the work
has resulted in a conviction and sentencing. This is the first report-ed
case involving the breach of duty and has resulted in a project
manager being sentenced to three-and-half years imprisonment.
Further information can be found under R. v. Kazenelson, 2016
ONSC 25; Metron Construction case.
Your operation is subject to the Trade Union Act if your employ-ees
are unionized or going to be unionized. This legislation, which is
now part of the broader employment act, governs how unionization
can occur and is the framework for unionized workplaces.
There is no shortage of employment standards rules to know. The
good news is employment standards authorities want you to under-stand
and follow the laws. If you have any questions, contact the em-ployment
standards authority or do some research at www.gov.sk.ca.
PROSTOCKSTUDIO/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Employment standards, workers’
compensation and human rights all factor
into your day-to-day decisions
By Pat Varga and Leah Knibbs, Knibbs/associates Sourcing People and Knibbs/associates HR Consulting
“If an employee does work, but less than three hours, the employer is still
required to pay them for a minimum of three hours of work at their hourly wage.
In previous legislation, it was at least three hours at the minimum wage.”
saskheavy.ca | Quarter 2 2016 | Think BIG 51
/www.gov.sk.ca
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