Employment Law Considerations For Rural Municipalities In Saskatchewan

• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Discrimination, Disability & Sexual Harassment, Health & Safety, Employee Rights/ Labour Relations
• Law Firm: MLT Aikins LLP
• Author: Calen Nixon and Jana Linner

Municipalities have unique labour and employment obligations that may be often difficult to navigate. Saskatchewan Rural Municipalities ("RMs") should consider seeking proactive legal advice regarding labour and employment issues before they arise.

This article provides a broad overview of some key legislative and best practices considerations for municipal workplaces, including compliance with various statutes respecting their obligations as an employer. This includes, among others, The Saskatchewan Employment Act (SEA) and its regulations, The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code, 2018 (SHRC), The Municipalities Act, and The Rural Municipal Administrators Act. In addition, some RMs have unionized work environments which warrant additional considerations.

Some important aspects of these obligations are highlighted below:

Employee Code of Conduct

RMs are required to have a code of conduct publicly available for employees, which includes rules surrounding conflicts of interest. The Municipalities Act describes what must be included in a code of conduct including, for example, procedures that must be followed if an employee suspects a conflict, and how conflicts will be resolved.

Employment Standards

There may be special considerations for RM employees regarding hours of work and overtime. Generally, managers are not entitled to overtime pay. The Employment Standards Regulations also provides that some employees of an RM are exempt from restrictions on requirements for overtime, overtime pay and modified work arrangements. This exemption generally applies to road construction or maintenance employees and those employees who service or repair road construction or maintenance equipment off-site.

Occupational Health and Safety Considerations

Much of the maintenance work performed by RM employees could be considered safety-sensitive work. RMs should be especially mindful of their occupational health and safety ("OH&S") obligations and take a proactive approach to OH&S. Two important considerations for RMs in this respect are described below:

• Occupational Health Committee - Every workplace that has 10 or more workers is required by the SEA to establish an Occupational Health Committee. Further, RM workplaces with fewer than 10 workers that do road construction, earthwork and urban sewer duties, among others, may also be required to establish a committee. The duties of occupational health committees, as specified in section 3-27 of the SEA, include participating in...