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Labour, Employment & Human Rights


We roll up our sleeves, nationwide.
With offices in all major cities, our top-ranked team provides proactive and pragmatic advice on everything from collective agreements to risk management and compliance programs. In short, what you need to manage a key asset: your employees.
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Overview

Appropriately navigating the labour, employment, and human rights landscapes is essential to attracting, retaining, and motivating your employees and by extension successfully maintaining and developing your business.

With offices in all the major city centres across Canada our Labour, Employment & Human Rights (LEHR) lawyers work with clients to provide proactive and pragmatic advice. Whether you need help to conclude innovative collective agreements or create risk management and compliance programs, we have the in-depth knowledge and experience required. In the event disputes arise, we will help you defuse tension among stakeholders and skillfully represent your interests in court, before tribunals or at arbitration.

In addition to our extensive Canadian presence and experience, we boast highly qualified and detailed-oriented LEHR lawyers in Johannesburg, South Africa, as well as connections to experts around the world, which enables us to help employers from all facets of industry and government, wherever they operate.

As one of the largest national labour, employment and human rights practices in Canada, we are able to comprehensively assist clients with their LEHR needs across the country in a coordinated manner. We represent major federally regulated employers including banks, airlines, telecommunication companies and Crown corporations. We also advise many significant employers in a broad range of provincially regulated sectors including retail, manufacturing, mining, agriculture, education, health, financial services, among others.

At Fasken, we act for numerous prominent foreign corporations, providing specialized advice and representation in adapting their human resources strategies to the Canadian and South African environments. 

To get up-to-date information about the relevant labour, employment and human rights considerations and key legislation impacting your business operations, you can subscribe to our HR Space bulletin, browse some of our recent work, or contact any of our lawyers.

 

Areas of Expertise

  • Employment Advice and Litigation, Proactively engaging valued legal advisors will help you to stay ahead of the curve, enhance your understanding of your legal obligations, ensure you have responsive and efficient policies and practices in place, and could save significant costs and avoid liabilities as you grow your business and market share.
  • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Navigating the EDI journey is complex. Whether you are just starting down the EDI path or already have a sophisticated understanding of EDI principles, EDI initiatives require careful planning, continuous reflection, and strategic advice. That’s where we come in.
  • Executive Compensation, Multinational corporations and local start-ups alike, our multi-disciplinary team advises on the full range of executive compensation matters by drawing on our extensive expertise in employment, tax, corporate and securities laws
  • Federal Sector, Fasken has the preeminent federal sector labour and employment practice in Canada. The federal sector includes some of the country’s largest employers, many of which have longstanding and complex relationship with trade unions. Because of this, the labour and employment issues faced by these employers often strike at the heart of their businesses.
  • Healthcare — Labour & Employment Law, Our experience and successes with our healthcare clients allows us to anticipate issues before they arise and proactively assess and manage litigation risk.
  • Human Rights & Discrimination, The ever increasing attention on discrimination and human rights issues has resulted in the need for organizations to be vigilant and proactive in reassessing and reviewing their operations in the context of human rights law. Whether your organization is developing a diversity policy, assessing how to reasonably accommodate an individual’s disability or defending against a human rights complaint, Fasken human rights lawyers can help.
  • Immigration, Looking to grow, develop and innovate with the “right” team of experts? Looking for creative ways to recruit foreign workers to address your labour shortage? We can help you.
  • Labour Mergers, Acquisitions and Sales of Business, Executing on a merger, acquisition or sale offers myriad benefits, but carries significant implications that must be carefully considered and accounted for. One such key impact is to your workforce. This impact will be felt on your workforce composition, compensation packages, employment contracts, and your corporation’s pension and benefits obligations.
  • Labour Relations and Collective Bargaining, The foundation of good labour relations lies in clear communication, and strong yet respectful management. Fasken LEHR lawyers have a long history of providing advice to and representing employers with unionized workers with respect to all their labour needs. In many cases, our client relationships date back decades, with clients placing great trust in our team to provide strategic guidance and representation.
  • Occupational Health and Safety & Workers’ Compensation Prevention Services, OHS and workers’ compensation regimes across Canada govern the safety of workers, and their financial well-being in case of workplace injury or disease. The issues and investigations are complicated. The penalties for getting it wrong are severe and the costs are significant.
  • Workplace Equity, Guiding organizations through the proper establishment and audit of workplace equity programs is what we do at Fasken. We develop strategies to address identified vulnerabilities and ensure each program complies with applicable legislation, thereby keeping our clients on the right side of the law. Should disputes arise, we represent employers before enforcement authorities, boards and tribunals.

Achievements

Team

Primary Contacts
  • Emilie Paquin-Holmested, Partner | CO-LEADER, LABOUR, EMPLOYMENT & HUMAN RIGHTS, Montréal, QC, +1 514 397 5111, epaquin@fasken.com
  • Shane D. Todd, Partner | Co-leader, Labour, Employment & Human Rights, Toronto, ON, +1 416 868 3424, stodd@fasken.com
  • David G. Wong, Partner | Co-leader, Labour, Employment & Human Rights, Vancouver, BC, +1 604 631 4920, dwong@fasken.com
  • Andrew Dixon, Partner, Calgary, AB, +1 403 261 8481, adixon@fasken.com
  • Paul Fouche, Partner, Johannesburg, +27 11 586 6021, pfouche@fasken.com
  • Sébastien Lorquet, Partner, Ottawa, ON, +1 613 696 6891, slorquet@fasken.com
  • Sébastien Gobeil, Partner, Québec, QC, +1 418 640 2032, sgobeil@fasken.com

Client Work

  • Castle Harlan acquires Alumni Educational Solutions, [Deal - Castle Harlan Inc.], Global private equity investment firm’s acquisition of leading educational furniture manufacturer.
  • Ulula Canada Inc., a leading human rights technology and analytics company, completes successful sale transaction, [Deal - Ulula Canada Inc], Canadian human rights technology company completes sale transaction.
  • HealWELL AI Inc. wins summary hearing at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, [Case - HEALWELL AI Inc.], Canadian healthcare company successfully defends against Ontario Human Rights Tribunal application.
  • Humber River Health successful in upholding mandatory vaccination policy, [Case - Humber River Health], Grievance challenging Humber River Hospital’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.
  • Fasken represented the Government of Quebec in a conventional arbitration regarding the compensation of government lawyers and notaries, [Case - Government of Québec], Representation of the Government of Quebec in an arbitration regarding remuneration.
  • Sale of Gelpac to ProAmpac, [Deal - Gelpac Inc.], Sale of Gelpac to ProAmpac.
  • Building Controls & Solutions completes add-on investment through the acquisition of Yorkland Controls Limited, [Deal - Building Controls & Solutions and LKCM Headwater Investments], Private investment firm completes add-on investment for its portfolio company.
  • H.W. International B.V. sells its North American operations to Risk Strategies, [Deal - H.W. International B.V.], Global, privately-owned insurance broker completes sells North American operations to United States brokerage firm.
  • Humber River Hospital successful in having related employer and sale of business application dismissed by labour board, [Case - Humber River Hospital], Labour board dismisses related employer application as no prima facie case established

Knowledge

Events

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