Background

Robert Kitchen is a partner and former national leader of the Labour and Employment Group in our Toronto office. Bob was called to the Ontario Bar in 1978.

Areas of Practice

• Labour Relations and Employment Law

Rankings and Recognitions

• Recognized in the 2011 edition of Chambers Global – The World's Leading Lawyers for Business (Employment, Labour & Pensions: Labour for Employers)
• Selected by peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in Canada 2012 (Labour and Employment Law)
• Described by peers in the 2008 edition of Chambers Global – The World's Leading Lawyers as 'one of the great, leading labour lawyers'
• Recognized in the 2011 edition of PLC Which lawyer? (Labour and Employment)
• Martindale-Hubbell BV Peer Review Rating

Professional Experience

• While advising employers on the full range of employment issues, he has specialized in labour relations for over 30 years.
• Advises and represents employers in all aspects of their interaction with trade union.
• Extensive experience negotiating collective agreements. He has successfully negotiated over 300 collective agreements in almost every sector of the economy.
• Regularly represents employers before Labour Relations and was counsel on a number of major decisions of the Labour Board.
• Extensive experience representing employers before arbitrators appointed under collective agreements.
• Provides ongoing advise to employers on legal and strategic issues in the course of union organizing drives. Pro-active, designated and presented a course 'towards an issue free workplace' to employers to minimize the risk of unionization.
• Extensive experience advising employers on the labour and employment implications of complex corporate transactions including due diligence, sale of a business and common employer.
• Designated and presented courses for employers on a variety of labour relations topics including collective agreement language, discipline and handling and investigation of grievances.

Professional and Community Activities

• Involved in many professional activities that compliment his experience in Labour and Employment. He is involved with the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Canadian Bar Association and the Human Resource Professionals Association of Ontario.
• Lecturer on behalf of the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Canadian Bar Association on Labour Relations, Human Rights and Worker's Compensation issues.
• Seminar and Workshop Leader on behalf of the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario in the areas of grievance handling and collective agreement language.
• Chairs and participates in numerous seminars on topical subjects in the field of labour relations.
• Spoken frequently in the United States on the implications of the Employee Free Choice Act.