NDP slams Liberals on temp work

Citing the Star's recent investigation, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called on the Liberal government to add more protections for temporary workers to Bill 148.

Thestar.com
Sept. 12, 2017
By Brendan Kennedy

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath pressed the Liberal government Tuesday about the growth of temporary work in Ontario and how proposed changes to labour laws don't do enough to protect workers from "shady" companies.

Citing a recent investigation by the Star - in which a reporter spent a month working undercover as a temp worker inside a North York food factory - Horwath said existing laws allow workers to be exploited by temp agencies and the changes the government is proposing will not fix the problem.

"Too many shady companies contract out risky work to temp agencies, because our laws are written so that if a temporary employee is hurt on the job, the company isn't held fully responsible," Horwath said during question period. "Our laws make it easy for unscrupulous employers, unscrupulous companies, to save money by hiring temporary workers and allowing them to get hurt, instead of investing in permanent employees and training them properly."

The Star found that the number of temp agency offices opening across Ontario has increased by 20 per cent in the last decade. There are now more than 1,700 operating in the GTA alone.

Among the advantages for companies that use temp agencies is that when a temp worker is hurt on the job, their agency - not the workplace where the injury occurred - assumes liability at the worker's compensation board. This saves the company money on insurance premiums.

Bill 148, the government's "Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act" - which, if successful, will increase the minimum wage to $15 - includes some measures to improve working conditions for temp agency workers.

It will ensure they are paid the same as permanent employees doing "substantially similar" work, for example, and make it easier for them to unionize. But the bill does not directly address injury liability, which is one of the most significant financial incentives to use temp agencies in the first place.

"That's a gaping hole and this is an opportunity to close that hole," Horwath added in a phone interview with the Star.

The proposed legislation, which had its second reading in the Legislature on Tuesday, also doesn't include any caps on how many temp agency workers a company can hire, or time limits on how long they can be made to work in the same job at the same workplace as a "temp."

Speaking Tuesday at a conference at Ryerson University, Premier Kathleen Wynne said her government was "fully intending" to explore amendments to the bill, which will return to committee hearings after second reading.

"My hope would be that we can find ways to strengthen it for sure."

Responding for the Liberals in the legislature on Tuesday, Labour Minister Kevin Flynn told Horwath that the government is "as concerned as you are" about the "growth" of temp agencies.

Flynn pointed out the ways in which the proposed legislation helps temp workers, and added that the ministry will be beefing up its enforcement capability by hiring 173 new employment standards inspectors "to go out and proactively inspect premises, perhaps like the one that was mentioned in the Star."

Traditionally associated with casual office work, statistics obtained by the Star show that the majority of temps are now working in non-clerical sectors, such as manufacturing and construction.

Temp workers are also more likely to be injured on the job. Last year, non-clerical temps suffered more than twice as many injuries as non-temps doing similar work, according to Workplace Safety Insurance Board data analyzed by the Star.

Academic research suggests that the higher injury rates are due to the fact that temps receive less training, while companies also assign them riskier work.

As part of a year-long investigation into the rise of temp work, the Star sent a reporter to work undercover as a low-wage temp worker at Fiera Foods, an industrial bakery that mass produces bread products for major grocery stores and fast-food chains. She received just five minutes of safety training before stepping onto the factory floor. She was also paid in cash, at a payday lender, without any documentation or deductions.

Last year, 23-year-old temp worker Amina Diaby was killed while working at Fiera Foods when her hijab was pulled into a machine, strangling her.

Horwath said the Star's stories showed the "squalid and dangerous conditions" faced by many workers, including Diaby.

"There's no way that anybody should go to work in the morning and be fearful that they're not going to come home at night."