Digital Signature Licitness for Funeral Leave Policy in Canada

How to eSign a document: digital signature licitness for Funeral Leave Policy in Canada

Hi it's Karnis Bailey here from Vista and I want to talk to you about quite a difficult issue, and that's the issue of Parental Bereavement Leave. So as of next April, all employees will be entitled to two weeks of paid leave in the event of the loss of a child. But the law only goes so far, this statutory right doesn't really give employers much more to help them support their employees should they find themselves in these sad circumstances, and actually for a lot of employers this is something they would have done anyway it's really just letting a statutory minimum to ensure that parents have some certainty. So I wanted to set out some thoughts around the kind of steps that employers might want to take in addition to this new right to make sure that they're doing what they can to support employees, in these kind of difficult circumstances. So, first of all I think it's always worth just looking at what you're already doing that employees might not be aware of. So lots of employers offer various benefits via occupational health, or employee advice lines, or private health insurance. And you may feel the employees would know what's out there and the support they may be able to access, but actually for a lot of people they don't pay attention to that until they really need it. So it's worth, if anybody does come to you, to let you know that they are facing any kind of difficult situation really, but in particular in relation to a bereavement, just checking what the options are for support around counselling and then making sure that the employee is well aware of that. I think the next thing to think about when you're in this sort of case is communication. It's really difficult I think for both employees that work alongside those that have suffered a bereavement or of course the parents themselves to know what best to say and do within the workplace, so, working with them to agree a communication plan so they know what their colleagues will be told, their colleagues know how they would best want them to communicate with them and you can just avoid some of the awkwardness that comes from this kind of situation, is well worth giving some thought to. Ultimately, it's down to an individual whether that's something that they want to do, but it's definitely an offer that can be made. And finally, I think looking at some of the steps that we'd take in relation to a medical absence to try and support an employee back into work after a period of bereavement leave is a really good practice. So a phased return of some sort can often be something that's welcome, and reasonable adjustments essentially, so is there somewhere that the individual can go if they need some time? Is there anything that we can do in relation to working hours? Just to address particularly difficult times for them, and perhaps looking through the calendar to see okay when do they anticipate, insofar as they can, that they might need a bit of time to process anniversaries or birthdays and those sorts of things, and trying to make plans for them. So inevitably dealing with a parent that has lost a child is going to be a very very difficult situation for everybody involved. I think with some planning and some openness we can try and ever so slightly reduce the impact for them.