Labour and Employment

Heenan Blaikie’s Labour and Employment group provides expert legal and strategic advice and representation in all areas of labour, employment and pensions law to unionized and non-unionized employers across Canada. Our clients include employers in all sectors of the economy, ranging from start-ups to multinationals as well as governments and Crown corporations, including employers in the broader public sector.

Services Overview

Our Labour and Employment group has expertise in:

• Labour law – strategic and proactive union management relations; responding to organizing; applications for certification; collective bargaining and collective agreement administration; grievance arbitration; interest arbitration; labour board proceedings including complaints based on unfair labour practices or the sale of businesses; collective bargaining decrees (Quebec); judicial review; constitutional litigation
• Federal sector labour and employment law – Canadian Industrial Relations Board proceedings including unfair labour practice complaints based on unfair labour practices or the sale of businesses; collective bargaining and collective agreement administration; grievance arbitration; interest arbitration; health and safety; unjust dismissal litigation; judicial review; constitutional litigation
• Labour disputes – strikes and lockouts, restraint of picketing, labour injunctions, final offer votes, resolution of disputes
• Construction labour law – responding to organizing, application for certification, collective bargaining, jurisdictional disputes, grievance arbitration
• Employment law – recruitment, hiring, compensation and benefits, employment contracts, restrictive covenants, policies, performance management, discipline, termination
• Remaining union free – advance planning; crisis management, planning and communications; responding to organizing drives and applications for certification; post-application litigation
• Employment litigation – wrongful dismissal, class actions, injunctions, enforcement of non-competition/non-solicitation, fiduciary and confidentiality obligations
• Employment ∕ labour standards – wage and hours of work issues, compliance audits, defence of claims, review/appeal of orders, judicial review
• Workforce planning – downsizing, restructuring, expansion, relocation, mergers, closure agreements, bankruptcy and insolvency issues concerning union and non-union workforces
• Human rights – defence of human rights complaints under federal and provincial laws; the duty to accommodate; drafting and implementing policies and procedures; internal and external investigations
• Pay and employment equity – compliance, developing and maintaining plans, responding to investigations and complaints, appeals, judicial review
• Occupational health and safety – strategic advice on compliance activity, policies and procedures; health and safety committees; inspections; due diligence audits; workplace violence and harassment issues; accident response and  investigations; defence of workplace accident-related regulatory and criminal charges
• Workers’ compensation – claims management, workplace audits, appeals, rate group/classification issues, judicial review
• Disability management – management of employee disability claims and employees on disability leave; return to work plans; and litigation of disability management issues
• International labour law – representing and advising large multinational companies on global workplace issues; general counsel to the Canadian Employers Council; representing Canadian employers before the International Labour Organization and other international bodies such as the Organization of American States
• Immigration – cross-border transfer, employee mobility, international recruitment
• Training – interactive and practical training for management and in-house counsel on a wide array of workplace issues
• Workplace privacy and access to information – compliance activity, policy design and systems development, training, responding to requests and complaints, investigations, discipline
• Workplace investigations – conducting workplace investigations, providing advice in connection with the proper conduct of an investigation and training clients on the conduct of a lawful investigation
• Pensions law, benefits and compensation – establishment, amendment and governance of all forms of employee benefit plans and the management of the associated financial, fiduciary, regulatory and reputational risks inherent in such plans