Our Municipal group provides legal services and advice to municipalities on a full range of labour and employment matters. We have acted for the majority of municipalities in Ontario, ranging in size from the City of Toronto to numerous small and mid-sized communities.

• A proactive approach:  We strive to help municipalities proactively resolve their labour and employment issues, ranging from matters involving grievance arbitrations, employment standards, human rights, privacy, termination of municipal officers, occupational health and safety and workplace safety and insurance matters.
  
  Our proactive approach means that we are also committed to ensuring our municipal clients understand the impact that any new legislation may have on their operations.
• Negotiation an­d advocacy:  We represent municipalities in a variety of collective bargaining contexts – from emergency services to firefighters to CUPE – with services ranging from providing strategic advice to representing clients at the bargaining table.
  
  In addition, we represent municipal clients in different forums when an employment or labour-related dispute arises. This can involve the representation of municipalities before rights and interest arbitration hearings, wrongful dismissal proceedings and tribunal hearings such as those involving human rights and WSIB issues.

The Hicks Morley advantage

The breadth of our municipal labour and employment practice means that we work for more municipalities than our competitors combined. In the last few years we have acted for over 70 municipalities. This provides our firm with a unique understanding of municipal sector clients and the issues they face. This knowledge helps ensure that the advice municipalities receive from Hicks Morley is expert, timely and efficient. And as Canada’s leading human resources law firm, our municipal clients benefit from the full depth of our firm’s expertise.

In addition, our four regional offices in Waterloo, London, Kingston and Ottawa allow us to serve municipal clients on a more local level than many other firms.

Notables

• Leadership:  Hicks Morley has a long and proud history of participating in municipal employer organizations and providing a leadership role. The following is a list of recent activities:
  • Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) – We are engaged on a number of issues including WSIB reform, OMERS devolution/governance, the Walkerton Inquiry and general advice on statutory and regulatory reform.
  • Large Urban Mayors Caucus of Ontario(LUMCO) / Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario – We have been engaged to advise on alternative bargaining structures in the emergency services sector and helped facilitate the creation of a municipal database with the Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association (OMHRA). 
  • Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs (OAFC) – We were engaged to assist in a comprehensive study of the 24-hour shift in the fire sector to enable municipalities to better address the issue.
• Expertise:  We are consistently chosen to be the keynote speakers on labour and employment issues before groups like OMHRA, AMO, LUMCO, OAFC, EMS directors, and the AMCTO.
• Innovation:  Hicks Morley is committed to helping municipalities to be ahead of the issues facing them. Currently, Hicks Morley is working with AMO respecting OMERS pension devolution. This work, combined with our expertise as the third largest pension and benefits practice in Ontario, places us in a unique position to provide leading-edge advice on this emerging issue.