Irv Kleiner ^*

A partner in Torkin Manes’ Labour & Employment Group, Irv's robust practice encompasses all aspects of labour relations and employment law, primarily on the management side. Having extensive experience in both the public and private sector, Irv has advised employers in the hospitality, manufacturing, transportation, health care (nursing homes, retirement homes, charitable and municipal homes for the aged, and hospitals), education, automotive and retail sectors.

For more than 40 years, Irv has represented employers before the Ontario Labour Relations Board, Boards of Arbitration, the Ontario Human Rights Commission, the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal, and before the courts in judicial review and appeal proceedings. He has acted as lead spokesperson for employers in their collective bargaining with virtually all trade unions that have bargaining rights across multiple sectors and has acted as the management-side nominee in a significant number of arbitration proceedings, specifically for the health care sector.

With a deep understanding of the nuances of the labour relations landscape, coupled with his pragmatic approach, Irv strategically counsels employers during union organizing campaigns, in union certification proceedings, unfair labour practice complaints, collective bargaining, rights and interest arbitrations, Human Rights complaints, Employment Standards complaints and pay equity matters. Clients appreciate his steady and even-tempered nature in the course of preparing for collective bargaining and managing the workplace during a labour dispute when there has been a strike or lockout. Irv excels at diffusing disputes and has capably represented clients before the courts in judicial review proceedings and, with respect to injunction proceedings, arbitration boards in both grievance and interest-based disputes, labour relations boards, Human Rights boards of enquiry, boards that have been constituted to determine Employment Standards complaints and Pay Equity complaints. He has also been engaged to conduct workplace investigations in relation to workplaces in a variety of sectors.

Irv is proficient in drafting employment contracts, and assisting clients in developing workplace policies and procedures, dealing with departing employee issues and litigating wrongful dismissal cases. He skillfully advises employers on the labour and employment implications involved in complex corporate transactions, including due diligence, and addressing successor employer and related employer issues.