Business group calls for ‘full repeal’ of Ontario’s new workplace protections

Thestar.com
September 4, 2018
Sara Mojtehedzadeh

The umbrella body representing 60,000 Ontario small business owners is calling on the provincial government to fully repeal the most sweeping changes to workplace protections in decades -- including a higher minimum wage, equal pay protections for temporary workers, and paid emergency leave days.

The legislation introduced under Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne last year was aimed at strengthening protections for vulnerable workers and resulted in a $2.60 increase in the minimum wage to $14 an hour in 2018, and a bump to $15 by 2019.

People supporting the $15 and Fairness campaign demonstrate in front of Queen's Park in January 2017. Included in workplace improvements brought in under Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne was a $2.60 increase in the minimum wage to $14 an hour in 2018, and a bump to $15 by 2019.

The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, known as Bill 148, also enacted two paid, job-protected emergency leave days for all workers, increased holiday entitlement, mandated equal pay for casual and part-time workers doing the same job as full-time employees, and boosted protections for temp agency workers.

“We’re looking at a full repeal of Bill 148,” said Ashley Challinor, Vice President of Policy at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. “It has created a number of compounding changes that created greater administrative and financial pressure on employers.”

Challinor said her organization was not asking the government to retract the $14 minimum wage, but for Queen’s Park to cancel the increase to $15 next year. She said the remaining provisions were making it harder for businesses “to maintain and grow their workforce.” Premier Doug Ford has previously said he will freeze the minimum wage at $14 an hour.

Challinor said the process leading up to Bill 148 was marked by a “lack of consultation” and an “unrealistic timeline.”

“We were frustrated that the process had moved very quickly and that employers were not able to have their voices heard and represented in the legislation.”

The Changing Workplaces Review, which led to the creation of Bill 148, was spearheaded by two independent labour experts and involved two years of consultations with workers, employers, and labour advocates across the province, including public hearings in 13 cities, two rounds of public submissions from stakeholders, and 10 independent academic research reports.

Earlier this month, a ministry spokesperson told the Star Labour Minister Laurie Scott was “considering the recent changes made and their impact on the overall economy.”

Deena Ladd, of the Toronto-based Workers’ Action Centre, said until Bill 148 the province’s employment legislation had not seen meaningful updates since the Second World War.

“I think it’s an absolute insult to working people who are struggling to get by to call for the repeal of legislation that was meant to update our basic labour laws,” she said.

“If (the government) were listening to the regular working person out there, they would absolutely know that the call for the repeal should be ignored.”

In its submission to the Changing Workplaces Review, the employer-side Keep Ontario Working coalition warned regulatory updates could “make it more difficult for Ontario business to grow and create good jobs.”

Through a Freedom of Information request, the Star obtained an internal review of the Keep Ontario Working submission conducted by University of Toronto professor and Royal Society of Canada fellow Morley Gunderson. It says while the evidence submitted by the employer lobby group constituted “reasonable” advocacy, some of its economic claims “do not seem to be supported by the data.”

These include Keep Ontario Working’s contention that job stability is increasing and that more evidence was needed before changing employment laws.

“The current situation is one more of stagnant wages ... and growing polarization between good and bad jobs. The polarization issue seems to receive little attention in their report,” Gunderson’s review says.

As for the lobby group’s call for more evidence, Gunderson said he was “all in favour of full-employment make-work projects for researchers like myself.

“But cynics would say that many of these are simply stalling procedures to stall the implementation process.”

A study by the province’s economic watchdog, the Financial Accountability Office, also predicted around 50,000 people could lose their jobs due to the minimum wage increase.

In July, the province’s jobless rate fell to 5.4 per cent, the lowest in 18 years, and lower than every other province except British Columbia.

“Unemployment is one measure and a fairly imprecise one,” Challinor said. “We’ve been seeing low unemployment for some time now. We’re also seeing lower labour market participation, which is concerning.”

Other than the minimum wage, Challinor said the OCC was concerned by “how some of the changes were essentially one size fits all,” including a new scheduling provision that gives workers the right to three hours of pay if their shift is cancelled within 48 hours of start time.

As previously reported by the Star, the Employment Standards Act -- which provides basic protections for workers without a union -- contains at least 85 exemptions for different sectors, which the previous government began reviewing earlier this year. Research conducted by professors at York University found only 23 per cent of minimum wage earners benefit from the full protection of the ESA as a result of exemptions and special rules, and fewer than 40 per cent of all Ontario workers were fully covered.

In the GTA, around half of all workers are in precarious jobs, according to a study by United Way and McMaster University. The final report completed during the Changing Workplaces Review estimated 30 to 32 per cent of workers are in low-wage, insecure employment.

Gilleen Witkowski of the Better Way Alliance, which represents 50 business owners across the province who support a “good jobs strategy,” said her organization had a “totally different view” to the Chamber of Commerce.

“There’s another side to the story on this. We have found that the new laws really allow for more people to have more money to spend on our businesses. They made employees in Ontario suddenly become a lot more stable and be able to afford to stay in their roles and just generally be dependable.”

Challinor said she was optimistic Bill 148 would be repealed.

“We are an important voice and I suspect you’ll hear from other business and employer groups as well,” said Challinor. “And we think the new government will be receptive.”