Employee Relations Amendments in Ontario

This case highlights the recent amendments in the labor relations act 1995 and employment standards act 2000 in Ontario. It discusses the changes and their impact on employee relations.

Human Resource Management

Running Head: Report
1. Employment relations
This case is about the recent amendment that has been taken place in the labor relations act 1995
and employment standards act 2000. This news highlights the changes that took place after these
amendments made by the government of Ontario. It is observed that the changing rules and
regulations and legislation are always the biggest issues under the category of employee
relations. The main purpose of the employment standards act, 2000 is to provide minimum
standards for most of the labor or workers working in the area of Ontario. This code basically
includes the rights and responsibilities of the employees and employers who are working in
Ontario. The amendment that took place this year in this act includes two additions which are no
requirement of the ESA posters and secondly no permission is required for excess hours and
excess hours. These amendments are applicable to all those sectors that come under the federal
jurisdiction including banks, airlines, radio, television stations and railways. On the other side,
the amendments in the labour relations act 1995 is also undertaken which includes the no
restriction on the collective agreement and no need for subcontract work to unionized
contractors. It is observed that the standards set by the government are playing extensive roles in
managing and improving organizational employees.
However, these amendments took place because the organizations are facing various challenges
in managing employee relations. Global competitive pressures basically forced the organizations
to implement the required changes and standards for managing the relationships with the
employees. From the above news article, it is clear that the employer performed their duties and
responsibilities. According to section 42 of the industrial relations act 1990, the employee
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representative is the person that participated in the negotiations with regard to the terms and
conditions of employment for all (Groom and Lambert 2019).
2. Employment Relations Theory and context
There are three main theories of employee relations including Unitarist, pluralist and Marxist
perspectives. The analysis of the news article states the pluralist theory of employee relations.
The organization is divided into several parts and each part has the goals, loyalties and goals.
The management and trade unions are two remarkable things that exist in the pluralist
perspective. According to the case, it is analyzed that the new forms of employee engagement
are required to bridge the gaps of the organizations in Singapore. The Singaporean community is
focusing on the two main frames including the public morality and the second one is media
platforms. It is observed that there are many cultural and social issues has been found such as
LGBT rights and death penalties and others which affects the employee relations at the
workplace. The social media platforms are mostly used for the sharing of the political news and
opinions but the challenge that found in the Singaporean community is about the lack of
interactions among the public (Suarez 2019).
Therefore, form the analysis of the studies and news; it is found that the people need new
democratic tools to start negotiation with the new politics. The political space and employment
will be strengthened whenever the organizations become able to handle the new laws and
policies. From this news, it is observed that various approaches and strategies need to be
followed by state organizations to improve the performance of organizations by working on
employee relations. The new democratic practices are not perfect, but against a background of
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irreducible pluralism, they can help reaffirm a unity of purpose where the unity of views is
impossible.
3. Analysis of Management & employer representatives
This case focuses on the management of employee relations issues by employers. Workplace
harassment can happen in any form at any place from offices to shops, restaurants, workshops,
government organizations and cafes. This article States how to manage workplace harassment at
the workplace. To manage the workplace harassment, Google company has introduced a
dedicated website which helps the employees to report about the harassment websites. The name
of the website is milestone Parker that brings multiple channels together. In November, the
organization found that more than 20,000 employees working in Google have walked out against
workplace harassment across the world. However, for the management of employee relation
issue, the employer google has decided to introduce a new website (IANS 2019).
Some of the other initiatives taken by the organization to manage the employee relations includes
the publication of the Investigation report of the company that includes misconduct investigation
including discrimination, harassment and retaliation. The employer also introduced and
expanded its support person program so that they will be able to provide support to their workers
facing the problem of harassment and discrimination. There are many publicly sharing
workplace policies that have been formed by Google in relation to the
discrimination, harassment, retaliation and workplace conduct. Google also brought some
changes in its workplace policies to manage the employee's relationships and to solve their
issues.
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From the above news article, it is clear that the employer performed their duties and
responsibilities. According to section 42 of the industrial relations act 1990, the employee
representative is the person that participated in the negotiations with regard to the terms and
conditions of employment for all. The case shows that thousands of the leaders of trade unions
went on roads because of the existence of workplace harassment issues at Google.
4. Analysis of Employee Representation – Union
This news article states that Democrats have not paid any attention to the union. Elizabeth
Warren is the Democratic presidential candidate who analyzed the lack of protection among the
Democrats and unions. The method that represented by her, in this case, is to streamlined the
union elections which is known as the card check. Trade unions are basically set up to protect
and promote the interests of the employees and lack of this protection always affects the overall
growth of the business. The main focus of these trade unions is on collective bargaining with
employers. The case shows some of the unlawful and disappointing activities performed by the
trade unions. Warren has the viewpoint that labour is the pillar of any democratic party but when
trade unions members and working-class voters create problems for the Democrats. Sometimes,
it is very difficult to handle the trade unions and voters with high aggression (The Economic
Times 2019).
According to the employees’ regulation 2004, the main purpose of the trade unions is to protect
the interest of the members against each other and represent the group of members collectively
and individually. The performance of the organization will automatically be improved if the
organization understands the needs of the employees and maintains strong relations with the
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employees. It is also analyzed that if the employees breach the contract of employment then they
will be managed by taking some lawful industrial actions. A similar thing can be done for the
trade unions, for instance, if they performed badly or against the employees or members, then
legal actions should be taken by the organizations or the democratic parties.
5. Analysis of Employment Relations and Performance
This case is about the employee relations and the performance of the Secure St. Lucia LTD
Welfare Committee that aims to improve the performance of the committee by backing up of
several employees and provide assistance to the internal matters of the company. The news states
that the employees are taking actions through the committee to de-unionize the national workers
under the provisions of the labour code. There are many approaches used by Secure St. Lucia Ltd
to improve the performance of the organization. The composition of the welfare committee
clearly demonstrates its strength as it consists of the wide range of the expert and capable
employees who have the experience of 1 year to 15 years. This composition of the staff members
having expertise will lead to improving the overall growth and performance of the organization
(St. Lucia LTD Welfare Committee 2019).
The welfare committee also had undertaken the morale-boosting activities which are another
approach of the organization to increase the level of the performance through improving the
relations with the staff members. The welfare committee also provides affordable financing
facilities to all the employees working for Secure St. Lucia. Moving further, the welfare
committee also aware of the fact that the timely payment of the employees and the clearance of
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the outstanding overtime’s dues is also important to retain the employees for the longer period of
time. The response of the employees was positive when the welfare committee was protecting
the interest of the company. The performance of the organization will automatically be improved
if the organization understands the needs of the employees and maintains strong relations with
the employees.
To measure the performance of the employees, under the industrial relation act, there is a need to
conduct the regular meetings in the organizations along with the exercises which will include the
innovative and employee oriented exercises for the coming months. From this news, it is
observed that various approaches and strategies need to be followed by the welfare committee to
improve the performance of organizations by working on employee relations.
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References
Groom, P, and K Lambert. 2019. "Ontario Passes Amendments to the Labour Relations Act,
1995 and Employment Standards Act, 2000."
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=041c8204-df39-49db-9d0d-
7d74509f8a75.
IANS. 2019. "Google making it simpler for employees to report workplace harassment with new
website." https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/google-making-it-
simpler-for-employees-to-report-workplace-harassment-with-new-website/articleshow/
69052513.cms.
St. Lucia LTD Welfare Committee. 2019. "Reinvigorated Welfare Committee takes lead on
employee relations at Secure St. Lucia LTD."
https://www.stlucianewsonline.com/reinvigorated-welfare-committee-takes-lead-on-
employee-relations-at-secure-st-lucia-ltd/.
Suarez, C. 2019. "A Cult of Democracy—Toward a Pluralistic Politics."
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2019/05/07/a-cult-of-democracy-toward-a-pluralistic-
politics/.
The Economic Times. 2019. "The Latest: Warren faults Democrats' attention toward unions."
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/the-latest-warren-
faults-democrats-attention-toward-unions/articleshow/69077710.cms.
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