UPDATE, MAY 31, 2017:
Since this article was published the Changing Workplaces Review final report was submitted to the Premier. It contains 173 recommendations. In response to the final report the Ontario Government announced on May 30 that they will be moving forward with the first group of changes to Ontario employment standards.
Some of these changes include:
- Raising the minimum wage to $14/hour on Jan 1, 2018
- Raising the minimum wage to $15/hour on Jan 1, 2019
- Raising the minimum wage annually to match the rate of inflation after 2019
- Equal pay for part-time, temporary casual and seasonal employees doing the same job as full-time employees
- At least two personal emergency days per year for all workers
- At least three weeks vacation for employees after five years with the company
You can read the final report here: https://www.ontario.ca/document/changing-workplaces-review-final-report
You can read the Press Release about this announcement here: https://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2017/05/fair-workplaces-better-jobs.html
ORIGINAL STORY FOLLOWS, MAY 16, 2017:
The Changing Workplaces Review is a Ministry of Labour analysis of the current state of the Ontario workplace. At the end of the review Special Advisors will submit a final report that will make recommendations and present options for changes to labour laws in Ontario. The recommendations in the final report could inform the most significant changes to Ontario Labour Law in 15 years–specifically reforms to the Labour Relations Act, 1995 and the Employment Standards Act, 2000. The final report is expected to be submitted this Spring.
An interim report was submitted in July 2016 and includes in-depth summaries of some key labour issues and options for addressing them. According to the interim report, “the objective of this Review is to improve security and opportunity for those made vulnerable by the structural economic pressures and changes being experienced by Ontarians”. With that in mind, here are some of the issues that you can expect to see in the final report later this spring:
- Paid sick days (this is not currently legislated)
- Part-time and temporary work wages and benefits
- Access to Collective Bargaining
- Administrative penalties and procedures
- Creating an Employee Voice
- Definition of “Employee”
- Definition of “Employer”
- Exemptions to the Employment Standard act including:
- Exemptions for IT professionals
- Exemptions for Pharmacists
- Exemptions for managers and supervisors
- Exemptions for Residential Care Workers
- Exemptions to minimum wage for students under 18
- Exemptions to minimum wage for alcohol servers
- Exemptions from the “Three-hour Rule”
- Scheduling
- Hours of work and overtime pay
- Public holiday pay calculations
- Personal emergency days
- Temp agencies
- Just cause for termination
- Enforcement of laws
At this stage, the Changing Workplaces Review is still only an interim report and there is no timeline on when (or if) any reforms will ultimately be enacted. But this report can help gauge the political temperature of the Ontario workplace and give you a sense of where the law might go in the near future.