York: 01.13.21 Employment Law Update - Lessons Learned: HR in a Pandemic
Agenda
10:00 am - Welcome & Speaker Introduction
10:05 am - Speaker Presentation
11:00 am - Event Concludes
Event Description
By January it will be almost a year since the world changed overnight. HR and HR Law have been dramatically impacted by COVID-19, and organizations have struggled to adapt to constantly changing circumstances and legislation. Along with all of the challenges, you have an opportunity to assess your existing contracts, policies, and procedures and determine how they can be improved in light of what has happened since March 2020.
- Are your contracts as strategic as they could be?
- Did you impose layoffs without a temporary layoff clause?
- Did your termination clauses help to reduce your severance costs?
- Are your termination clauses compliant with the requirements set out in the multitude of cases decided over the past few months addressing the enforceability of termination clauses and the duty to pay bonuses and other variable pay after termination?
- Do your policies address health and safety in the workplace in extreme circumstances like a pandemic?
- Do you have systems in place to enforce health and safety rules and respond to complaints of an unsafe workplace?
- Do you have remote work policies that rise to the challenge?
We will discuss some of the ways in which organizations can learn from the past eight months or so and how you can adapt your core HR documents to strengthen your legal position. In advance of the session, consider areas where your contracts, policies, and procedures did not allow you to easily respond to the unusual circumstances.
Learning Objectives
- Understand how COVID-19 has affected HR from an employment law standpoint
- Gain insight on the challenges related to remote work
- Obtain guidance on revamping of internal documents to reflect the new circumstances
Speaker Bio
Stuart Rudner
Stuart Rudner is the founder of Rudner Law, a firm based in the York Region specializing in Employment Law (or HR Law, as it is often called). They work with business owners, HR Professionals, in-house counsel, and anyone else tasked with looking after HR in the organization. He and his team know that you don't have "employment law issues"; you have business decisions to make. And you need to make informed decisions. That's where they come in. They can explain how the law applies to your situation, discuss the options and strategies available to you, and the pros and cons of each. You can then take all of that into account, along with the business and other factors, and decide what makes sense for your organization. Stu chairs and teaches at conferences, and he is the founding Program Director of Osgoode Professional Development's HR Law for HR Professionals course and the co-founding Program Director of their Advanced HR Law for HR Professionals course. Stu has been actively involved in the Canadian and Ontario Bar Associations and has held several leadership positions. He has also volunteered countless hours leading sessions on HR Law topics and serving on committees for the HRPA, and on the Board of Directors of the International Association for Human Resources Information Management. Stu is a sponsor for the York Chapter HRPA and presents at the annual Employment Law Update for the members.