Canadian Payroll Reporter

7 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2016 CPR | October 2016 Legislative Roundup keep an election promise to raise the general minimum wage rate to $15 an hour by 2018. To achieve this, she says the government will increase the rate to $13.60 on Oct. 1, 2017, and to $15 on Oct. 1, 2018. The rates that apply for sales- persons and domestic employ- ees will increase by equivalent amounts. Ontario Reminder: Minimum wage rates going up on Oct. 1 The general minimum wage rate in Ontario will rise from $11.25 an hour to $11.40 on Oct. 1. Other minimum wage rates in the province will also go up. The rate for students who are under 18 and who work fewer than 28 hours a week (or more than 28 hours during school vacation) will go up from $10.55 an hour to $10.70. The rate for liquor servers in Ontario will rise from $9.80 an hour to $9.90. The minimum wage rate paid to homeworkers will increase from $12.40 an hour to $12.55 an hour. The minimum wage rate for hunting and fishing guides will also increase on Oct. 1. The rate for guides who work fewer than five consecutive hours in a day will increase from $56.30 to $56.95. The rate for guides who work five or more hours in a day, whether or not the hours are consecutive, will rise from $112.60 to $113.95. Saskatchewan Reminder: Minimum wage rate going up The minimum wage rate in Sas- katchewan will rise from $10.50 an hour to $10.72 on Oct. 1. Under Saskatchewan law, the government uses annual changes to the province's consumer price index and average hourly wage to set the minimum wage rate. Quebec 2017 QPIP rates to remain at 2016 levels Premium rates for the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) will remain at their 2016 levels next year, the Quebec govern- ment has announced. Effective Jan. 1, 2017, the em- ployee QPIP premium rate will be 0.548 per cent and the em- ployer rate will be 0.767 per cent. The government in Quebec has not yet announced the 2017 maximum insurable earnings amount. It is currently $71,500. Prince Edward Island Reminder: Minimum wage rate going up The minimum wage rate in Prince Edward Island will rise from $10.75 an hour to $11 on Oct. 1. It is the second minimum wage increase this year. On June 1, the government raised the rate to $10.75 from $10.50. The Department of Justice and Public Safety says about 9.3 per cent of P.E.I. workers are paid at the minimum wage rate. Reminder: HST rate going up Oct. 1 Beginning Oct. 1, the rate for the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) that applies in Prince Edward Is- land will rise from 14 per cent to 15 per cent. The rate change will affect the value of taxable benefits that employers provide to employees that are subject to the HST. The provincial government announced earlier this year that it would raise the provincial portion of the tax from nine per cent to 10 per cent, increasing the overall HST rate to 15 per cent. With the change, the HST rate in all four Atlantic Provinces will be the same. from ALBERTA on page 1 a requirement for employers to obtain employees' written con- sent to work longer than daily or weekly maximum hours. The act allows employees to work a maximum of eight hours per day or the number of hours in the employee's regular work- day where their regular hours are more than eight per day and 48 per week. The report states that if the employee consent requirement is eliminated, it could be re- placed with a list of specific cir- cumstances in which employees could refuse excess daily hours. Scheduling: The act current- ly does not address scheduling and does not require employers to provide employees with ad- vance notice of shift schedules. The report puts forward op- tions for possible change, in- cluding giving employees the right to request changes to schedules at regular intervals during the year; requiring em- ployers to provide advance no- tice when setting and changing work schedules and to pay em- ployees more for last-minute schedule changes. Leaves: The report looks at the various unpaid leaves al- lowed under the act and asks whether the government should add new ones (e.g., domestic violence leave and leave for the death of a child when the death is not related to a crime). It also asks whether the act should require that employers provide employees with paid sick days. Labour and employee advocates have long called for the act to include them. The report also looks at the act's requirements for personal emergency leave, which pro- vides employees with up to 10 days off work, without pay, each year if they work for an employer who regularly employs at least 50 employees. Employees may take the leave for a number of different rea- sons, including an illness, in- jury or medical emergency for themselves or specified family members, bereavement or other urgent matters. The report sets out a number of options for changing personal emergency leave, including re- moving the 50-employee thresh- old and breaking down the 10- day entitlement into separate leaves (e.g., bereavement leave, sick leave, etc.) that total 10 days altogether. Termination of employ- ment: The report looks at no- tice requirements and severance pay. It asks whether the current maximum of eight weeks of no- tice for terminations should be increased or decreased. It also wants feedback on whether the government should eliminate a requirement that employees be employed by their employer for three months be- fore being entitled to termina- tion notice. In addition to termination notice, Ontario requires em- ployers to provide severance pay if certain conditions apply. The act mandates severance pay if an employee has five or more years of service with an employ- er and either the employer has a total annual Ontario payroll of at least $2.5 million or is ter- minating the employment of 50 or more employees in a period of six months or less because all or part of the business is perma- nently closing. Employers have to pay severance pay for a maxi- mum of 26 weeks. The report asks for com- ments on whether the govern- ment should reduce or eliminate the 50-employee threshold, the $2.5-million payroll threshold, the five-year eligibility require- ment and/or the 26-week cap. Meaning of employee and em- ployer: The report looks at issues such as how to deal with employ- ers who misclassify workers as independent contractors rather than employees and whether a new category of employee, called a dependent contractor, should be added to the definition of employee in the Act. In addition, the report dis- cusses whether there should be obligations placed on busi- nesses that contract out work to make them liable for employ- ment standards violations by sub-contractors or franchisees. from page 6

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