A recent article published in the Montreal Gazette on August 18, 2010:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/story_print.html?id=3414237&sponsor=
Reservists' job security deserves and gets protection
by Gabriel Granatstein
The late Winston Churchill is reported to have first coined the phrase "twice a citizen" as a measure of the value of military reservists who served the national interest in both civilian and military capacities. In a reflection of that praise, the Quebec government enacted legislation last year which, for the first time, required employers to give military reservists job protection similar to that of an employee who leaves on maternity or sick leave. Similar legislation has been passed throughout the rest of Canada.
Being a reservist myself, this legislation is near and dear to my heart. I've been a reservist for seven years and have served both full and part-time. I still serve as a reservist with the Judge Advocate General Branch (legal) of the military. Military service has been an invaluable experience for me and I love being able to practice law at a firm like Ogilvy Renault LLP and still continue to serve my country. While my own firm has always been very supportive and encouraging of my parallel military career, this new legislation helps protect those reservists whose employers are perhaps less supportive than mine and, at the same time, sensitizes all employers to the rights and obligations of reservists and the corresponding benefits that they can offer their employers.
Before discussing the new legislation, it is important to first consider the roles and obligations of reservists in the Canadian Forces. First of all, reservists generally receive the same training as their regular force (full-time) counterparts. They wear the uniform, earn the same rank and often serve side-by-side with the regular forces. However, unlike regular force service members, they do not sign full-time multi-year or indefinite contracts that require them to be moved around the country and be deployed at the government's will. Reservists can work part-time or full-time, when and where they choose. In exchange for this flexibility, reservists are not guaranteed full-time employment and receive a slightly lesser salary. However, many reservists work full-time. For example, in my seven years as a reservist, I spent about three years working full-time. I did a tour in Bosnia as a peacekeeper in a mixed regular force and reserve unit. That contract lasted about 10 months and because it was for an operational tour, I was entitled to all of the benefits of being in the regular force. The tour, like all operational deployments for reservists, was optional. I also worked full-time in a headquarters in Quebec, worked as a recruiting officer and taught basic training in Manitoba. I volunteered for all of those positions.
Indeed, unlike our American counterparts, Canadian Forces reservists cannot be compelled to serve on operational tours without an Order In Council signed by the Governor General of Canada acting under the advisement of the federal cabinet. This has not happened since the Second World War and is not likely to happen anytime soon. Given this situation, there has not been any form of job protection legislation for reservists as it has been their choice to leave on a deployment. However, Canada's involvement in Afghanistan has resulted in an increased use of reservists and there has been a push to enact job protection legislation across all jurisdictions. Indeed, given that labour relations are generally the responsibility of the provinces, all provinces have enacted a similar form of job protection legislation.
In Québec, that legislation took the form of last year's amendments to the Labour Standards Act ("Act"). The amendments provide that any employee who is subject to the Act and has 12 months of uninterrupted service with an employer is entitled to take off up to 18 months to participate in a qualifying Canadian Forces operation. Also, any employee subject to the Act, regardless of their length of service with an employer, is entitled to take up to 15 days off to take part in annual military training. Of course, employers are entitled to both written notice of the requested leave and documents justifying that their absence is for valid military purposes and do not have to pay these employees during their absence. On their return from this service, reservists are generally entitled to return to the same position, without penalty.
I would encourage employers not to see these absences in anything but a positive light. When on operations and undergoing training, Canadian Forces soldiers gain valuable transferrable skills. Soldiers of all ranks learn leadership, project management, attention to detail, how to work under stress, and many other valuable life and work-related skills. Many employers have recognized the value in employing reservists and have dedicated policies providing more generous benefits for their reservists. From my experience, some employers even offer to "top-up" the difference between the salary a reservist will earn overseas and what they would have otherwise have earned at home. If reservists are, as Winston Churchill said, "twice the citizen"- so are employers who support their reservists.
Gabriel Granatstein, a lawyer at Ogilvy Renault LLP, practices labour and employment law in the province of Québec and can be reached at
[email protected].
