Canadian Employment Law Today - sample

Ontario workers rise up – or do they? The Ontario government's proposal for the modern workplace and what it means for millennials BY NATALIE MACDONALD AND GEOFFREY LOWE T he workplace is being revolution- ized and the casualties are the mil- lennials. ey are caught between wanting to be part of the Canadian workforce and not being properly admitted to it. Millennials, who form the most sig - nificant population of the workplace today, are being relegated to temporary, part-time and contract positions, without any means to become full-time permanent members of working society. is is bad for the economy, as if we do not have permanent employees, they will not be spending. It is bad for morale, as we will witness a generation of workers living from paycheque to paycheque in a type of welfare state. It is bad for the social sphere, as millennials will live with their parents, not being able to afford to move out, which will, in turn, lead to less or no socializing, not dining out, not qualifying for loans or mortgages, and of course, this leads back up to not spending on our economy. e solution to this quagmire of the part-time worker is for both employers and employees to change the way they function. Millennials have to battle the ste- reotype of being given participant ribbons for showing up and employers need to em- brace a new workplace. Both parties must work together to achieve it. e changes to the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 (the act) suggested in the newly-announced Bill 148 can be cate- gorized under five headings: Wages, Wage Protection, Working Conditions, Leaves of Absence and Vacation, and Enforcement. e Ontario government has stated that the changes suggested in Bill 148 are sug- gestions only and a broad group of stake- holders will be consulted on the feasibility of implementing these changes. Accord- ingly, the suggestions outlined here are in no way guarantees of what amendments to the act will be implemented. Wages e most publicized change is the increase in Ontario's minimum wage. is will give at least 30 per cent of Ontario workers a substantial raise, first to $14 per hour in 2018, and to $15 in 2019. Subsequent in- creases to the minimum wage will be tied to inflation. Other suggested changes are more sub- tle. All workers at an employer performing the same job are now required to be paid the same rate, irrespective of their status with the employer, whether they are full- or part-time, or if they are casual, tempo- rary, seasonal, or permanent employees. is is bolstered by the right to request, without the threat of repercussion, that their employer review their wages if they feel they are not being compensated at the same rate as another employee performing the same work, or to ask another employee about his wage rate. e Final Report of the Changing Work- places Review suggested that wages for certain workers — including students and alcohol servers — be brought into line with every other worker, which strangely was not included in the government's proposed amendments. As such, students and alco- hol servers, many of whom are students and millennials, will remain at a lower rate of pay, despite the minimum wage being increased. e continued existence of this multi-tiered wage system runs contrary to the stated goal of the update to this law, and fails to provide any additional protection to vulnerable employees. Wage protection e report also suggested a change to the act and the Personal Property Security Act to allow employees to recover outstanding wages at a higher rate than is presently available under the Wage Earner Protec- tion Program (WEPP) under the Bank- ruptcy and Insolvency Act (to a maximum of $10,000 instead of the current amount of $3,946.16 under WEPP) in the event their employer becomes insolvent. e re- port also suggested a fundamental change to the Ontario Business Corporations Act (OBCA) that would allow employees to claim outstanding wages from a corpora- tion's directors. Under the current struc- ture of the OBCA, directors and officers of a corporation (who in many cases are also the corporation's owners) may rely on the corporation's limited liability status to avoid being ordered to pay workers any outstanding wages out of their own pock- ets in the event their corporation becomes insolvent. e changes suggested in the report would have represented a dramatic change in corporate law, and would have been a first not only for Ontario but for Canada as a whole. Bill 148 fails to include either of these proposals. Rather, the focus of the government's proposed amendments are on ensuring that workers get paid outstanding wages, instead of addressing issues related to insol- vency. Employment standards officers will now have the authority to order employers to pay employees their outstanding wages directly, without going through the current process of using the Ministry of Labour as an intermediary. Where these wages have remained outstanding for a lengthy period, the government may order that their pay- ment include interest. e Director of Em- ployment Standards may now also employ collectors to obtain outstanding wages, who will be permitted to undertake stan- dard collector's activities, including issuing liens and holding securities. Working conditions e most dramatic impact of the govern- ment's suggestions will be to the working conditions of most Ontario workers. is RECENTLY, THE ONTARIO government released its long-awaited Final Report of the Changing Workplaces Review. This report suggested approximately 150 changes to several pieces of legislation, amongst them the Employment Standards Act, 2000. Shortly after its release, the government announced Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017, which contains the government's suggested changes to the act, some of which go beyond the changes suggested in the report. However, a number of positive changes that were suggested in the report appear to have been omitted from the government's consideration. The first reading of Bill 148 took place on June 1, 2017. Bill 148 was subsequently ordered to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs for review and comment. 4 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2017 CASE IN POINT: EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS BACKGROUND

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