Business

Employment

Boughton Law’s Employment Practice Group supports employers and employees on matters related to employment relationships, labour relations, and human rights.

A successful workplace requires a proactive approach to managing your workforce. Boughton Law’s expertise supports you throughout the employment relationship, from initial hiring onwards. Handle your personnel matters with confidence and leverage our team’s advice on hiring practices, employment contracts, policies, disciplinary procedures, terminations, and restructuring.

Employers looking for legal counsel on human rights and discrimination issues can trust our skilled lawyers for guidance through complex situations. Whether you operate in a unionized environment or run a business governed by individual agreements, we help protect you from baseless claims when faced with court, employment standards, or human rights tribunal proceedings.

Employees who have experienced wrongful dismissal, human rights violations, or violations of employment standards can rely on us for effective dispute resolution. Whether advising in the background or formally representing you in negotiations or legal proceedings, our team has the experience to ensure that your rights are respected.

Boughton Law is a part of Meritas®, a global alliance of independent, full service law firms. With access to firms operating in over 230 markets worldwide, we can draw upon the expertise of trusted foreign legal advisors and even provide referrals if needed.

  • Human Rights

    At their simplest, human rights are the fundamental rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled. As a business person, your success and reputation demand that you actively and effectively address human rights issues in your workplace.

    Whether your organization needs to defend itself against complaints of harassment or discrimination, or proactively develop corporate policies, provide educational training for managers and employees, and more, we can help.

    Our Employment Practice Group provides practical advice about human rights and discrimination to businesses, educational institutions, professional regulatory bodies, and other organizations. Our team can advise on policy and represent you before human rights tribunals, arbitration tribunals, as well as provincial and federal tribunals. We also have experience in resolving human rights problems with progressive dispute resolution techniques and creative strategies.

    Through our membership with Meritas®, we can assist you in developing and implementing policies across Canada.

    Boughton Law lawyers assist clients in all areas of human rights law, including:

    • Advising professional regulatory bodies on professional regulation and discipline, including admission criteria, admission of foreign-trained professionals, and human rights complaints
    • Developing and implementing human rights policies with related training
    • Developing proactive corporate policies and procedures, including conflict audits, to prevent human rights problems and effectively resolve complaints
    • Developing plans to “accommodate” employees in the workplace
    • Training managers and employees with respect to discrimination, harassment, and their obligations under the law
    • Providing comprehensive and timely audits, investigations, and inquiries
    • Preparing responses to complaints
    • Representing clients during human rights investigations and before human rights tribunals
  • COVID-19 Employment Law Resources

    Regardless of where your business stood earlier this year, the COVID-19 crisis has forced all business to make difficult and reevaluate labour considerations in the coming weeks. Boughton Law is here to help. Connect with our COVID-19 Employment Law Response Team for help with:

    • work from home policies;
    • assessing options to reduce payroll;
    • renegotiating employees’ employment terms;
    • temporary layoffs;
    • termination of employees;
    • accessing government support programs; or
    • any other employer-side issues related to COVID-19.

    As each client’s needs and context are different, we have a variety of options to help for organizations both large and small. Reach out today and our team will respond within two hours between 8am – 8pm:

    email: CovidResponse@boughtonlaw.com
    phone: 604 605 8337

    Resources:

    article: Guidance for Employers of Temporary Foreign Workers Regarding COVID-19
    article: COVID-19 and Legal Considerations for B.C. Employers
    article: Is Your Business Eligible for the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy?
    article: Temporary Immigration measures during COVID-19