PCs move to freeze minimum wage at $14
Bill that would also scrap two paid sick days for workers called ‘mean-spirited, reckless’
The Ford government will freeze the minimum wage at $14 an hour for the next two years and eliminate the guaranteed two paid sick days for Ontario wworkers as part of a move cancelling a host of labour reforms brought in by the previous Liberal government. Under current legislation, workers have up to 10 days off — receiving pay for the sick days only. Under new legislation, introduced Tuesday afternoon at Queen’s Park, wworkers will be allocated eight unpaid days off — three for sickness, two for bereavement and three for personal matters.
Speaking at Leland Industries in Scarborough earlier in the day, Jim Wilson — the minister in charge of reducing red tape for businesses — said the Ford government is eliminating the “job-killing” parts of the Liberals’ Bill 148.
But labour groups decried the changes as unfair to workers, and as “meanspirited and reckless.”
Bill 148, aimed at modernizing Ontario’s basic workplace standards, had boosted the minimum wage to $14 from $11.60 and introduced another bump to $15 in January 2019.
Under the new bill, the minimum wage will remain at $14 an hour until October 2020, and all increases after that will be tied to inflation, meaning it will reach $15 by about 2024. Labour Minister Laurie Scott said that means it will be “determined by economics, not politics.”
Before Bill 148, 1.6 million Ontario workers did not have access to an unpaid, job-protected sick day because of an exemption on workplaces with less than 50 employees. The new bill will not reintroduce the exemption.
Scott said the provision for three weeks of vacation for employees with five years at a company will remain. She also said existing rules around time off for victims of domestic violence won’t change.
She also said Finance Minister Vic Fedeli continues to work on a plan so that minimum wage earners pay no income tax.
According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, two-thirds of the 4.9 million Ontarians making less than $30,000 already pay no income tax and a minimum-wage increase would leave them $1,500 richer than income tax relief.
The new bill will scrap equal pay measures for temporary, part-time and casual workers, which required they receive the same pay for doing the same work as permanent employees. New measures to make it easier for temp agency workers to unionize will also be repealed.
The Star has reported extensively on the rise of temporary work in Ontario. The number of temp agencies opening across Ontario has increased by 20 per cent in the past decade and there are now more than 1,700 operating in the GTA alone, according to statistics from the provincial workers’ compensation board.
The PCs legislation will also repeal scheduling protections that gave employees the right to refuse a last minute shift without fear of reprisal.
Deena Ladd of the Torontobased Workers Action Centre called the employment law changes “devastating news for people in Ontario.”
“I think by these actions the government has clearly shown it’s not for the people and they have really clearly sided with the corporate elites which they said they were not going to do,” Ladd said.
“I find it such a mean-spirited and reckless changes by getting rid of paid sick days, scheduling, equal pay — everything that workers have shown is needed to rebalance the inequality and discrimination in the workplace. They are undoing all of that good work.”
Submissions from health-care providers to the two-year Changing Workplaces Review (CWR) that led to Bill 148 said access to paid sick days “would best advance the health and well-being of Ontarians, and help protect the most vulnerable workers.” Some 145 countries already provide some form of paid sick leave protection to workers.
In 2014, the Ontario Medical Association also warned that requiring sick notes of employ- ees was “forcing patients into the doctor’s office when they are sick” and “only encourages the spread of germs to those in the waiting room.”
The legislation will also return to lower maximum penalties for breaking the law. In its final report to government, the special advisers leading the CWR noted that an effective enforcement system involved a “strong element of deterrence” including “significant administrative monetary penalties.”
Stronger protections against employee misclassification will also be scrapped. Around 12.5 per cent of workers in Ontario are classified as independent contractors, who have no protection under the Employment Standards Act.
According to the CWR, the “experience of the Ministry of Labour in enforcement and significant anecdotal evidence” showed a portion of those contractors were in fact employees who had been misclassified by their employers.
The Employment Standards Act serves as the basic floor of rights for all workers in the province, and is the primary source of protection for nonunionized workers who do not have additional protections enshrined in a collective agreement.
Previous inspection blitzes by the Ministry of Labour found three-quarters of employers investigated in violation of basic employment laws. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the changes make a mockery of Premier Doug Ford’s election slogan “for the people.”
Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said “it’s like they’re hitting the rewind button.” The Ford government appears to be consulting only with the business community on the changes, said Green Leader Mike Schreiner, who said it is “reasonable” for workers to get two paid days to deal with a family emergency or crisis and get notice of shift changes.
“This is a false choice the Conservatives are making, pitting small business against their employees,” added Schreiner, a food industry entrepreneur before entering politics.
He called for a better “balance” than Bill 148 on notification of shift changes.
Scott, however, called them “needless scheduling restrictions” and said the government is giving employers “the flexibility to have the right staff at the right time.”
Leading advocates of stronger protections for vulnerable workers included the Fight for $15 movement and the Workers’ Action Centre, who said they were not consulted by Scott in the government’s review of the legislation.
“This is a shocking definition of consultation,” said Pam Frache, Ontario co-ordinator for the Fight for $15 and Fairness group.