Renewed Disgraceful Attack Against Workers
in Precarious Jobs

A significant aspect of Ontario Bill 66 is the renewed attack by the Ford government on workers employed in precarious work. Bill 66 follows the Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018, known as Bill 47, which received royal assent on November 21 of last year. Amongst other things, Bill 47 eliminated the increase in the minimum wage from $14 to $15 per hour that was set to come into force on January 1, freezing the current rate until October 1, 2020. Bill 47 also cancelled the minimum legal requirement of two paid sick days a year, as well as a measure prohibiting employers from forcing employees to obtain medical notes to prove they were sick.

The proposed Bill 66 makes changes to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA). It removes the legal requirement that employers must apply to the Director of Employment Standards before entering into an agreement whereby their employees can exceed 48 working hours per week, with a limit of 60 hours per week.

A significant change contemplated in Bill 66 is this repeal of the 60-hours-per-week cap under the hoax that this will only happen if there is an "agreement" in place between the employer and the employee. This is a fraud because the worker employed in a precarious job is very often not organized in a union, thus lacks the backing of an organized collective. Precarious worker are often hired through temp agencies, which means they have no direct formal employer with whom they can reach an "agreement." This means workers are often just ordered to work longer than the 60-hours-per-week cap and are released if they refuse to "agree." The government is now making the situation even more precarious and a blatant dictate by removing the necessity of any intervention by the Director of Employment Standards.

Bill 66 also removes the requirement that employers must receive approval from the Director of Employment Standards before entering into "agreements" that allow them to average out their employees' hours of work for the purpose of determining their entitlement to overtime pay.

Workers, particularly those who are not unionized, already find it very difficult to avail themselves of the current provisions in the ESA. In cynical fashion, the Ford government avoids this situation by simply eliminating many parts of the ESA and any legal mention of it at the workplace such as posters informing workers of their ESA rights.

Ontario workers say No! to this shameful attack against workers in precarious jobs and demand Bill 66 be scrapped!

This article was published in

Number 3 - January 31, 2019

Article Link:
Renewed Disgraceful Attack Against Workers in Precarious Jobs

    

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