Canadian Payroll Reporter

CPR_JULY_2013V2:Canadian Employer.qxd 13-06-14 12:42 PM Page 5 CANADIAN PAYROLL REPORTER L E G I S L AT I V E RO U N D U P C H A N G E S I N PAY RO L L L AW S A N D R E G U L AT I O N S F RO M AC RO S S C A N A D A ■ CANADA to introduce a short-term disability program to support employees through illness. Canada modernizing disability management system ■ ALBERTA The federal government is planning to tackle high rates of employee absenteeism, while strengthening support for ill and injured public servants, with a new initiative meant to modernize outdated disability insurance plans. The federal public service has an annual absenteeism rate of 18.2 days, including paid and unpaid leave. That is two-and-a-half times the private sector rate of 6.7 days, said the government. Under the current system, it is difficult for ill and injured employees to reintegrate back into the workforce so, to better manage employee illness, the government intends to overhaul the disability management system, which has remained virtually unchanged for the past 40 years. The government will work with stakeholders and bargaining agents Alberta's minimum wage increasing Effective Sept. 1, Alberta will raise its minimum wage from 9.75 per hour to $9.95 per hour, a 2.1 per cent increase. Workers who receive tips will continue to make $9.05 per hour until the general minimum wage reaches $10.05 per hour. Visit www.payroll-reporter for a comprehensive, regularly updated list of minimum wage rates across the country. Alberta's whistleblower protection law now in effect Alberta's whistleblower protection law is now in effect, as of June 1. The Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblower Protection) Act, passed in the fall 2012 session of the legislature, protects public sector employees from job reprisal if they report wrongdoing. The legislation applies to: the Alberta Public Service; provincial agencies, boards and commissions with employees; post-secondary academic institutions; school boards; charter schools; private schools that receive government grants; and public sector health organizations. Health-care professionals appointed to the medical or professional staff of a public organization, or who hold privileges with one, are also protected under the act. Under the legislation, public sector bodies are required to appoint a designated officer at their organization to investigate and resolve complaints by employees who report: •violations of provincial or federal law •acts or omissions that create a danger to the public or environment •gross mismanagement of public funds. CFIB recommends pooled pension plans Continued from page 1 wage hike. "We feel it's quite likely that not only would the payroll budget of a business be hit each year for 10 straight years, but that the take home income of an average Canadian could go down each year for 10 years," he says. "I don't know a lot of Canadians who feel like they have enough disposable income that they could see their wages drop for 10 years." When employers reduce contributions in one area to accommodate costs in another area, it's called a "carve out," according to Kevin Milligan, an associate professor of economics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. This concept occurred when the CPP was raised in the early 1990s, he says. "Imagine a firm is offering a pension of some kind and the CPP gets bigger, well essentially they shrink their own pension they're providing their employees to account for the fact that CPP is bigger," he says. It's also commonly seen in unionized environments when new savings programs are introduced in a collective agreement. "It's not necessarily something that the unions are opposed to because they want a decent pension for their employees," he says. "But if they're already getting a decent pension, they don't need that plus CPP." Employers may favour a CPP expansion because it's often the least expensive pension option available, Milligan says. "If the government is doing it and they're doing a good job at it and they're doing it cheaply, it's a pretty good deal for small- and mediumsized businesses," he says. "I'm sure guys in the pension industry would tell you why that's wrong, but there is a case to be made that… investments are being managed well, they're being managed cheaply, and getting good returns compared to benchmarks." The CFIB supports the concept of a Pooled Retirement Pension Plan (PRPP). A PRPP is a defined contribution (DC) pension offered by a third party financial institution, such Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2013 continued on page 7 5

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