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News Canadian Payroll Reporter
Canadian HR Reporter, a HAB Press business 2019
Taking a step back in time:
Ontario's ESA turns 50 years old
BY SHEILA BRAWN
THIS YEAR, Ontario's em-
ployment standards legisla-
tion marks a milestone. It has
reached the half-century mark.
On Jan. 1, 1969, the provin-
cial government implemented
the Employment Standards
Act, 1968. The new legislation
consolidated other acts that
addressed working conditions
such as hours of work, vacations,
and minimum wages, bringing
employment standards rules to-
gether in one act for the first time
in Ontario.
Compared to today's legisla-
tion, the original ESA was short,
with only 39 sections. (There are
more than 140 now.) The origi-
nal act did not address leaves of
absence, terminations, or sever-
ance pay. They would come later.
A look back at the first ESA
reveals how much employment
rules have changed in Ontario
over five decades and where they
are still similar.
In 1969, the act set the maxi-
mum hours of work at eight per
day and 48 per week, with em-
ployers allowed to apply for per-
mits for longer hours. The maxi-
mums, which still exist today,
applied under a previous Hours
of Work and Vacations with Pay
Act, which the ESA replaced.
One big change in the new act
was that employers had to pay
employees 1.5 times their regu-
lar rate for overtime hours. It
was the first time overtime rules
in Ontario required employ-
ers to pay employees more than
their regular rate.
It applied when employees
worked more than 48 hours a
week, compared to today's 44-
hour threshold.
A Toronto Star article from
May 28, 1968, reported then-
labour minister Dalton Bales
saying the new overtime rules
would bring employment stan-
dards more in line with those
of unionized workers and en-
courage employers to hire more
workers.
In addition, by requiring em-
ployers to pay more for over-
time, the new rules would also
"ensure that employees are not
required to work excessive over-
time hours," said Bales.
The overtime pay proposal
was controversial. The Star
article quoted an employer as
saying it would be "disastrous,"
while a union official called it a
"gimmick that would affect 'only
a handful of people.'"
In a June 6, 1968, Toronto
Star article, a union representa-
tive dismissed premium pay for
working overtime, saying he was
more concerned with the gov-
ernment setting new minimum
wage rates. At the time, the gen-
eral minimum wage rate was $1
an hour.
"This business of time-and-
a-half when you've got nothing,"
said Gerry Gallagher, agent for
the Laborers Union local 18.
"Time-and-a-half of what?"
Opposition parties were also
unhappy with the hours of work
see UNIQUE page 8
