Melanie Vipond is a partner at GLGZ where she advises employers in all areas of labour and employment law, including human rights and occupational health & safety law in the workplace. She provides strategic advice regarding the management of workplace legal issues to both private and public sector employees on issues relating to unionization, collective agreements, human rights accommodations, discipline/termination of employees, harassment & bullying and serious workplace incidents/fatalities. She regularly representing her clients at mediations and hearings before arbitration boards, human rights tribunals, labour relations boards, employment standards branch/tribunals and the BC workers compensation appeal tribunal. Ms. Vipond has also appeared before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada.  She has been recognized as a leading Canadian lawyer in labour and empoyment law by the latest editions of The Best Lawyers in Canada.

Ms. Vipond frequently conducts investigations, on behalf of clients and as an independent investigator, of workplace complaints relating to misconduct, harassment & bullying, violence, assault, misuse of supervisory authority, theft and breaches of company’s standards of conduct.  In January 2021, she was named on the Government of Canada’s national roster of workplace harassment and violence prevention investigators published on the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety’s website. She also has extensive experience in writing investigation reports.

Ms. Vipond is a frequent trainer and writer on a variety of labour and employment law topics, particularly in the areas of human rights, prima facie discrimination/duty to accommodate and employee medical information. Her most recent article entitled “Family Status Discrimination: Caregiving and the Prima Facie Case” was published by the Osgoode Hall Law Journal in 2020 (Osgoode Hall Law Journal 56.3 (2019): 564-605). Her thesis that she wrote while completing her Masters in the Science of Law at Stanford University related to mediation/arbitration and was published in the Fall 2011 edition of the America Labor Law Journal.

Ms. Vipond is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of British Columbia (UBC), teaching Law and the Modern Workplace. She has also lectured as a guest speaker in those areas at Stanford Law School, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars and is involved in lobbying and advocacy related to labour and employment policy and legislation.

Kate Baillie is the Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Client Experience at Technical Safety BC. Kate is a curious and inspiring leader who looks for opportunities to motivate and engage teams towards practical, multi-dimensional solutions. Comfortable in a constantly changing landscape, she listens actively and digs for the truth, using observation and data to build cases for change.

Kate joined Technical Safety BC from TELUS, where she led teams in marketing, communications, and customer experience. She has a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree from Toronto Metropolitan University and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

When not obsessing over safety, Kate works to improve diversity in the workplace, mentors up-and-coming leaders and likes to spend time outside – either doing hard labour in her garden or enjoying all the amazing hiking and kayaking that Vancouver has to offer.

Laurence Beatch joined the City of Vancouver’s 10 years ago and is an Executive Member the City’s Human Resources team. Accountabilities include psychological and physical safety, workers’ compensation, occupational and non-occupational mental and physical health and wellness, occupational and non-occupational claims management, attendance management, critical incident management and legislative compliance. Responsibilities include ensuring for evidence informed approaches and a commitment to a behavioural based psychological and physical safety culture that achieves positive reductions in human and financial costs.

Laurence’s professional background includes 10 years with WorkSafeBC, 4 years as a Director for a major national health care firm and 8 years as Practice Leader and Vice President for a major international consulting firm. He has significant experience designing, implementing and managing approaches that address occupational and non-occupational absenteeism. Specific areas of expertise include: workers’ compensation, case management, vocational rehabilitation, ability management, attendance management and psychological and physical safety.

Laurence has consulted for various clients in a broad range of industries and organizations in the public and private sector. Clients have included cities, municipalities, public health regions, provincial governments, school districts, sawmills, mining, shipping, sanitation, retail and manufacturing.

Laurence has spent considerable time working in unionized environments and recognizes the importance of addressing collective agreement issues. The ability to recognize the unique needs of all stakeholders has enabled him to collaborate on achieving solutions that reduce the human and financial costs of absenteeism.

Laurence has spoken at numerous conferences across Canada. His strong reputation, knowledge and enthusiasm is obvious to those who attend his sessions. He has proven his ability to effectively engage audiences through his natural and dynamic presentation abilities, all while sharing real life examples, instilling humor and providing practical solutions that participants can apply to everyday issues they face in their workplace.