Minister Flynn says labour reforms have broad support

Government wants to see employers hiring full-time instead of relying on contract workers

KITCHENER — Kimberly Ellis-Hale teaches sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University and she’s hoping the coming changes to provincial labour laws will help people like her — the part-time faculty who do most of the teaching for less than half the pay of full-timers.

Contract employees with similar experience and skills as full-time employees will have to be paid the same under Bill 148 — “The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act.”

For the past 20 years, Ellis-Hale has taught sociology at Laurier and she is paid about $8,000-percourse. A full-time faulty member is paid at least 60 per cent more for the same work.

“What I am hoping is Bill 148 will begin to address that,” said Ellis-Hale.

Bill 148 passed second reading at Queen’s Park this week, and the government wants final approval before Christmas.

As the legislation returns to an all-party committee for its final review, Ellis-Hale would like to see potential loopholes closed.

“I am hoping that the government will see its way clear to tightening up language around equalpay-for-equal work,” said Ellis-Hale. “I would like to see equal-pay-and-benefits for work of equal value.”

Ellis-Hale is the contract-faculty liaison for the university’s faculty association. During the past 20 years, Ontario universities have used increasing numbers of part-time faculty to teach courses. At Laurier, contract faculty teach about 50 per cent of the courses, and half the students, she said.

“We are not just fill-in, we are part of the teaching landscape here, and yet we don’t see any of the benefits from doing that,” said Ellis-Hale.

She made her comments in an interview following a visit to Kitchener by Kevin Flynn, the province’s labour minister. The government wants to encourage employers to hire full-time employees instead of relying on contract workers, he said.

“They can still hire casual people if they want, they can still hire part-time people if they want, but they pay them the same as full-time,” said Flynn.

Bill 148 should become law before Christmas. There will be more public hearings as it goes through a final review. It will apply to all employers in Ontario, including colleges and universities, said Flynn.

The use of part-time contactors instead of fulltime employees is among the main issues in the strike by 12,000 Community College instructors across Ontario. Part-time instructors at colleges make up 70 to 85 per cent of the faculty, depending on the school, says the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents college instructors.

“There probably isn’t any better example of the part-time/full-time than the contract dispute with the colleges,” said Flynn.

Beginning Jan. 1 the minimum wage in Ontario goes to $14-an-hour, up from the current $11.40.

Flynn said there is a lot of support for the government’s move to increase the minimum wage, extend 10 days of emergency leave to all workplaces, and increase to three weeks the minimum paid vacation for all workers after five years at a job.

Bill 148 also gives employees three hours pay to on-call employees who are not called in, and three hours of pay to any employee when a shift is cancelled with less than two days notice. Employees may refuse shifts scheduled with less than four days notice.

“The fact of the matter is almost at third of us in the province of Ontario make less than $15-an-hour now,” said Flynn.

“Out of that third, about 50 per cent of those people are between the ages of 25 and 64, so this isn’t kids,” said Flynn.

The Liberals and New Democrats unanimously supported the second reading of Bill 148, and only the Conservatives voted against it, said Flynn.