Inclusive Workplace Agreements: Using language that reflects equity and belonging

In this webinar, experts will examine developing trends in drafting employment contracts, policies, and collective agreements that promote workplace equity and comply with human rights legislation. Topics to be addressed include:

• How can legal practitioners and workplace parties apply anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and intersectional approaches when reviewing, negotiating, or drafting language in contracts, policies, and collective agreements?
• Are legal practitioners, by virtue of applicable rules of professional conduct, required to consider equity, diversity, and inclusion (“EDI”) when reviewing and drafting such documents?
• What steps should be taken prior to recommending or implementing new provisions or policies intended to address EDI issues?
• What does an effective employee consultation process look like?
• What language should be avoided or updated in employment contracts, policies, and collective agreements to ensure that language is inclusive and non-discriminatory?
• What is involved in taking an “Indigenizing” or “decolonizing” approach to workplace issues?
• What are some examples of clauses that have recently been negotiated that reduce barriers for equity-seeking employees?
• What lessons can be learned from recent decisions in which collective agreement, employment contract, or policy language was found to be discriminatory?
• How can parties ensure that contract language aimed at promoting EDI does not conflict with other rights (e.g. seniority or other rights of coworkers)?
• What impact are recent developments in the U.S. having on EDI initiatives in Canada?