Canadian Payroll Reporter - sample

June 2019

Focuses on issues of importance to payroll professionals across Canada. It contains news, case studies, profiles and tracks payroll-related legislation to help employers comply with all the rules and regulations governing their organizations.

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2 News June 2019 Canadian HR Reporter, a HAB Press business 2019 to amend the province's employ- ment standards and labour rela- tions laws. "Bill 2 under a UCP govern- ment would be the Open for Business Act, which would re- verse job-killing NDP policies, restore workplace democracy, bring balance to Alberta labour laws, and incentivize the cre- ation of youth employment," said UCP campaign documents. Proposed employment stan- dard amendments would in- clude changes to general holiday pay rules. The UCP has pro- posed returning to prior em- ployment standards rules that required employees to work for their employer for at least 30 days in the 12 months before a general holiday to qualify for holiday pay. The previous NDP govern- ment eliminated the 30-day re- quirement in 2018. The UCP has also promised a return to a regular/irregular workday distinction for calculat- ing general holiday pay. Since 2018, the Employment Standards Code has required employers to pay employees for general holidays on which they do not work, regardless of whether the holiday falls on a regular workday. With the 2018 amendments, employers must now pay em- ployees who work on a holiday their average daily wages for the day, plus 1.5 times their regular wage rate for each hour worked, or pay them their regular wage rate for the day and give them a day off with pay before their next annual vacation. This applies re- gardless of whether the holiday falls on a regular workday. The UCP also pledged to re- verse another 2018 amendment that requires employers with overtime banking agreements to provide employees with 1.5 hours of time off with pay for each hour of overtime worked. Previously, employees could only bank one hour for each overtime hour worked. Minimum wage is another area that may see changes. While the new government said it would keep the province's gen- eral minimum wage rate at $15 an hour, it added that it might allow for other minimum wage rates for certain workers. It has proposed a $13-an-hour minimum wage rate for workers under 18 years and the creation of a minimum wage expert panel to assess whether workers in the hospitality industry who serve alcohol should have a lower min- imum wage rate. For some employers, the pro- posals are welcome. "Alberta's move to a $15 mini- mum wage rate has taken its toll on businesses who are also faced with higher costs for overtime, holidays, and restrictions on how they schedule workers," said the Alberta Chamber of Commerce. However, labour advocates warn that the proposed chang- es, especially those affecting overtime pay, would be bad for workers. "The NDP brought Alberta in line with all other provinces by guaranteeing that all banked overtime would be calculated on a time-and-a-half basis instead of a straight-time basis, whether it was taken as cash or time off," said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. "The change proposed by the UCP would make Alberta an outlier among Canadian prov- inces and it would provide a big financial incentive for employers to use banked overtime to deal with overtime rather than pay- ing it out," he said. "Employers that don't cur- rently have a banked overtime policy will almost certainly in- troduce them in order to avoid paying time-and-a-half." Meanwhile, the Ontario an- nouncement was included in this year's provincial budget, which Finance Minister Vic Fe- deli tabled on April 11. "The government is commit- ted to ensuring the more effec- tive and efficient administration of payroll legislation," said the budget document. "To achieve this, the govern- ment is exploring working with key partners, such as the Ca- nadian Payroll Association, to establish the Ontario Payroll Burden Reduction Advisory Council. This approach aligns with steps already taken in other Canadian jurisdictions," it said. The proposal is one of several initiatives Fedeli put forward to reduce what he calls "regulatory burden" on businesses. He also announced that the government would continue reviewing ways to streamline business-related regulations, with a target of re- ducing them by 25 per cent by 2020. Fedeli also proposed that the government would introduce one important red tape reduc- tion bill each fall and spring dur- ing its term in office, in addition to tabling other bills to lessen regulatory requirements. "Once fully implemented, these changes are expected to provide Ontario businesses with over $400 million in ongo- ing savings on their compliance costs," said the budget. The CPA said it was pleased to hear that the government might set up a payroll advisory council, adding that the province needs to be more in line with other jurisdictions when it comes to regulating businesses. "(Ontario) currently has the most onerous payroll compli- ance regulatory framework in Canada, outside of Quebec," said the CPA. "Currently, Ontario has more payroll-specific regulatory re- quirements than British Co- lumbia, Alberta and Manitoba combined." CPA president Peter Tzane- takis said with remittances from personal income tax, health premiums, employer health tax contributions, and Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) premiums accounting for approximately $50.5 billion, or 40 per cent, of the province's total annual revenues. "We are pleased that the bud- get recognizes payroll's essen- tial role in the economy and the work done by payroll profession- als on the government's behalf to manage employee and employer revenue contributions efficient- ly and effectively," he said. Other payroll-related mea- sures in the budget included pro- posals for the Ministry of Labour to use more digital tools in em- ployment standards administra- tion to reduce duplication and red tape for employers. The proposal builds on a re- cent announcement that the ministry has developed a new online self-audit tool for em- ployers to replace paper audits that employment standards of- ficers used to do. The budget also proposed amendments to pension plan leg- islation to allow plan sponsors to use electronic communication as the default method for commu- nicating with plan members. It also reiterated previous an- nouncements that the govern- ment would freeze the mini- mum wage at $14 an hour until October 2020 and conduct an operational review of the WSIB, focusing on financial oversight, effectiveness, and efficiency. Employers and payroll profes- sionals in Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Is- land may also see payroll-related changes in their jurisdictions. Shortly after delivering the budget on April 16, an election was called in Newfoundland and Labrador. New mandates gen- erally bring legislative amend- ments. One likely change that payroll professionals can expect is the elimination of the prov- ince's Temporary Deficit Reduc- tion Levy by the end of the year. The levy applies to individuals with an annual taxable income above $50,000. Employers col- lect it from employees with their income tax source deductions. The provincial Liberal party, which implemented the levy in July 2016, has said it would only apply until the end of 2019. P.E.I.'s new minority Progres- sive Conservative government has pledged to raise the basic personal amount claimed on a provincial TD1 (currently $9,160) to $12,000 and to index future increases to inflation. The Official Opposition Green Party has said it wants to see the minimum wage reach $15 an hour by 2023. It is cur- rently $12.25. from ALBERTA on page 1 Minimum wage rate among issues of contention Employers in Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island may also see changes.

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