Canadian Payroll Reporter - sample

6 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2016 News November 2016 | CPR Review will ensure provincial rules are in line from N.B. on page 1 continues on page 7 ble amendments the government may table in coming months. Two years ago, the govern- ment eliminated its Minimum Wage Board and replaced it with a requirement that the minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour review the wage rate and determine if any changes are needed. In the discussion paper Statu- tory Review of the Minimum Wage 2016, the department high- lights four possible rate-setting choices, based on achieving dif- ferent objectives: • Increase the rate to $11 an hour and index it to inflation after- wards. This would maintain the purchasing power of the prov- ince's lowest-paid employees. • Set the rate by finding an ap- propriate distance between the province's minimum wage and the median wage and then adjust the minimum wage rate each year. This would maintain a relative level of pay between the minimum wage and median wage, which is the rate at which half of the workers in the prov- ince earn less and half more. In recent years, the minimum wage rate has lagged behind the median wage. • Raise the minimum wage rate to the average rate in other juris- dictions in Canada and then ad- just it each year to maintain the average. This would ensure that New Brunswick's minimum wage does not lag behind other parts of Canada. As of Nov. 1, the average minimum wage rate in all provinces and territories is $11.26 per hour. • Look beyond just raising the minimum wage rate and imple- ment tools or policies, such as a wage top-up program or guar- anteed annual income, that ensure that all provincial resi- dents live above a low-income threshold. The paper presents consider- ations and challenges for imple- menting each option. While the paper does not recommend one choice over another, the pro- vincial government seems to be leaning towards implementing at least the first option. It has previously said it is com- mitted to raising the minimum wage rate, currently at $10.65 per hour, to $11 by the end of 2017 and to indexing it afterwards. When it comes to indexation, the paper recommends that the government tie minimum wage adjustments to annual percent- age changes in the total con- sumer price index (CPI) for New Brunswick and then round it to the nearest five cents. In the case of deflation, it says the rate would not go down. The recommenda- tions are similar to rules in some other provinces that index their minimum wage rate. In another discussion paper, called Legislative Review of the Employment Standards Act: Em- ployment Protections for Young Workers, the department looks at how legislation in the prov- ince can ensure that the jobs that young employees hold help them "gain work experience while not interfering with their develop- ment and growth." Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Donald Arseneault says the re- view will help the department de- termine if its rules are in line with an International Labour Organi- zation convention on minimum working age, which the Canadian government recently ratified, and with the province's own strategy for preventing harm to children and youth. "It is important to ensure that we are protecting all of our work- ers and are in line with the stan- dards and best practices of other Canadian jurisdictions," he says. The Employment Standards Act restricts children under 16 years of age from working in employment that is likely to be harmful to their health, welfare or moral or physical develop- ment. In addition, it prohibits them from working more than three hours on a school day and more than six hours on other days. The total number of hours that young people can spend go- ing to school and working cannot be more than eight hours a day. The act also prohibits em- ployees under 16 from working between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Em- ployers who wish to have young employees work more than the maximum allowable hours or outside of the times permitted must apply to the Employment Standards director for an exemp- tion permit. The act puts additional restric- tions on children under age 14. Employers are prohibited from hiring them to work in indus- trial enterprises, construction, forestry, hotels and restaurants, automotive service stations, and dance halls, among other places. In the paper, the department proposes a number of changes to youth employment require- ments, including: • Increasing the age for which restrictions apply from 16 to 18; • Increasing the age for which prohibitions apply to certain types of work from 14 to 16; • Requiring employers to obtain a parent's or legal guardian's consent before employing a youth under age 16; and • No longer allowing exemption permits. The department is also con- sidering possible changes to the working hours restrictions for young people. Options include increasing the daily maximum number of hours that they can work from three to four on school days and from six to eight on non-school days. The department is also looking at prescribing a maxi- mum number of weekly work hours for young people. The department also plans to review the listed of restricted industries for young people to ensure that it is up to date and to examine whether to add provi- sions for entertainers under age 16 to the act. The third discussion paper, called Coverage under the Em- ployment Standards Act, focuses on groups of workers not current- ly covered under the act. "The aim of this review is to ensure that vulnerable people are protected and the Act is applied fairly and equitably to all employ- ment relationships," the discus- sion paper states. As part of the review, the de- partment is considering the fol- lowing issues: • It proposes to amend the defini- tion of "employee" in the act to clarify how to determine wheth- er an employment relationship exists. The department says it would base the new definition on common law tests for an em- ployee versus an independent worker (e.g., control, organiza- tion, ownership of tools, etc.) and best practices in other juris- dictions. • It proposes to cover domestic workers under the act. • It would add a definition of "hours of work" to the act. The definition would clarify that the act would consider time that employees are required to be at their disposal, including during night shifts and times when they may be sleeping, to be hours of paid work. With the department propos- ing to cover domestic workers un- der the act, the paper says it needs to ensure that they are treated the same as employees in other oc- cupations who have to work over- night or be on-call and who may be sleeping during that time. It notes that employers would be able to apply for an exemption if it caused them special hardship or if they could show that they provide employees with other benefits and advantages that would be reasonable compensa- tion for the exemption. It proposes to add minimum standards for room and board to the act. "New Brunswick is the only jurisdiction in Canada that does not set minimum requirements under employment standards legislation for accommodations or room and board provided by employers to their employees," the paper says. The departments proposes adding provisions to the act to prohibit the cost of employer- provided accommodation from reducing an employee's wages below the minimum wage rate and to allow employees to reach an agreement with their em- ployer on whether they will live in the employer-provided ac- commodation. Other proposals include add- ing a provision stipulating that employees who live in employer- provided accommodation would not be required to stay there during rest periods, vacations or leaves. The paper proposes that the act cover all agricultural workers,

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