Bass Associates
Automatically compiled listing. Details may contain errors.5 lawyers · City of Toronto
One of 2,276 law firms listed in Toronto, and one of 311 handling Employment & Labour Law.
About Bass Associates
Bass Associates acts exclusively for employers, and labour and employment matters are the whole of its practice. The core of the work is collective bargaining support for employers in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, where the firm's professionals usually take the role of spokesperson across the table from the union. They bring long experience in industrial relations in both the public and private sectors, with unionized and union-free workplaces alike.
Clients come from well beyond one industry. Bob Bass, the firm's principal, has acted in negotiations and arbitration for governments as well as hospitals, long term care and home care employers, police services and universities. Governments also turn to Bass Associates for input on labour and employment legislation, from Ottawa to Ontario, Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Some of these bargaining tables are very large. Since 2000 the firm has spoken for the Ontario government in every negotiation and interest arbitration with the province's Crown and civil lawyers, a group of 1200. It's been the province's spokesperson with OPSEU since 2008, through three agreements covering 35,000 employees, and it has represented Ontario since 2011 and Alberta since 2013 in negotiations with their doctors' associations, the OMA and the AMA.
Behind that bargaining sits a database tracking wages, benefits and premiums for unionized employers in long term care, community care and hospitals, which the firm's own software turns into reports in almost any format a client needs. The Toronto office is at 16 Edmund Avenue and can be reached at 416.962.2277.
History
The firm's roots go back to 1982, when Robert Bass set up Bass Research Services Ltd. to work on compensation models, computerized labour relations data, contract negotiations and interest arbitration in several public sectors, along with nominee work. Bass held an honours degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Waterloo and had been Director of Research and Information and a senior negotiator at the Ontario Hospital Association. Judy Edwards, who'd been a senior research officer at the OHA, joined Bass Research Services that same year.
Michael Allen came aboard in 1995, and in the late 1990s Bob Bass and Malcolm Winter introduced interest-based bargaining to the hospital sector. By 2000 the practice was operating as Bass Associates Ltd. from 16 Edmund Avenue in Toronto, the address it still uses. It's now Bass Associates Professional Corporation, with the old Bass Research Services work folded into it, and while it has grown a great deal since 1982, bargaining, interest arbitration and the research behind them remain its focus.
Practice areas
Collective bargaining and interest arbitration
Bass Associates works on every part of negotiating a collective agreement, from strategy at the table to drafting arbitration briefs, with all the evidence behind them, and presenting them. Dan McPherson has led for employers for many years in the OACCAC central bargaining and in the London Nursing Home Group process.
Our guide: Severance Pay in Ontario: What a Calculator Can and Can't Tell You
Pay equity
Michael Allen has spent the past decade as lead counsel for a group of 250 nursing homes at the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal. Michele White has helped employers in health care, engineering, gaming and municipal settings, union and non-union, with job evaluation and with drafting, negotiating and maintaining their pay equity plans.
Boards and tribunals
The firm represents employers at the Labour Relations Board on certifications and unfair labour practice complaints, and before the Employment Standards Branch, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and its Appeals Tribunal, the Pay Equity Commission and human rights tribunals. Donna Walrond has appeared before the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, as well as at grievance and interest arbitrations.
Non-union staff and the wider workplace
For employees outside any bargaining unit, the firm advises employers on pay, benefits, working conditions, workplace policies and the legislation that applies. Mary Kokosis, whose practice spans the whole employment relationship, came to Bass Associates after years as in-house counsel and privacy officer at Coca-Cola Bottling Company.
Good to know
Wheelchair accessibleMilestones & recognition
- Employer spokesperson in the central nursing home groups with SEIU and with UNIFOR (and its predecessor union) since 1982, and with ONA since that central process began in 1990.
- Chief spokesperson in hospital central bargaining: four rounds each with OPSEU and ONA, two with CUPE and one with SEIU.
- Spokesperson for employers in the Ontario teaching hospitals' bargaining with medical residents (PARO) since 1982.
- Spokesperson for every agreement since 2011 in the OACCAC central bargaining with ONA, OPSEU and CUPE, which covers all of Ontario's CCACs.
- Three agreements reached at the table and one interest arbitration for the Ontario government with AMAPCEO, covering 12,000 employees.
- In 2026 the firm appeared for the Participating Nursing Homes in a central interest arbitration with the Ontario Nurses' Association, heard in Markham that June.
Affiliations & connections
- Ontario Long Term Care Association: Bass Associates has provided input to the Ontario Long Term Care Association on matters touching labour and employment legislation.
- Ontario Association of Police Service Boards: Bass Associates has provided input to the Ontario Association of Police Service Boards on matters touching labour and employment legislation.
Lawyers 5
This firm’s lawyers at a glance
- Called to the bar
- 1987–2008 · median 24 years in practice 3 of 5 lawyers
- Law schools
- University of Windsor 1 of 5 lawyers
- Languages on the roster
- French
Who handles what
Frequently asked questions
- Who at Bass Associates looks after retirement homes and home care providers?
- Bass Associates has more than one person on this work. Ryan Wood, with the firm since 2007, acts for many nursing home and retirement home clients, and Rob Orendi, who joined in 2020, represents nursing homes, retirement homes, home care providers and manufacturers.
- Can I work in French with Bass Associates' pay equity counsel?
- Bass Associates' Michael Allen, who acts as lead counsel for a group of nursing homes at the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal, is fluent in spoken and written French.
- Will Bass Associates train our supervisors on applying the collective agreement?
- Bass Associates trains management and supervisory staff on how collective agreements apply in practice. Mary Kokosis has also trained clients on carrying out their own internal investigations.
- Can someone from Bass Associates sit as a nominee on our arbitration board?
- Bass Associates professionals act as nominees on both grievance and interest arbitration boards.
- Does Bass Associates have anyone based in Ottawa?
- Bass Associates' Ryan Wood works out of the Ottawa office, with clients across Canada.
Where to find them
16 Edmund Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4V 1H3 · 416-962-2277
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Employment & Labour LawAdministrative & Regulatory LawThis listing was generated by AI from public sources in October 2026. It may contain errors, and we can’t guarantee it’s accurate or complete. Before you rely on anything here, verify it on the firm’s own website. Verify licence status in the Law Society of Ontario directory ↗
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