How your rights on the job will change if Bill 47 is passed

Thestar.com
October 30, 2018
Sara Mojtehedzadeh

A new bill on workplace standards introduced Tuesday at Queen’s Park is a “sweet deal” for big employers, but working families “just got screwed,” according to the Toronto & York Region Labour Council.

“If you run a billion-dollar company like Walmart, McDonald’s, or Tim Hortons, you just got one awful sweet deal from Doug Ford. If you run a temp agency, you can pay poverty wages as a business model,” said labour council president John Cartwright.

A rally in support of worker protections was held at the Ministry of Labour on Monady, October 15.

“But if you work for a living in this province, odds are that someone in your family just got screwed.”

Rocco Rossi, who heads the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, called the Ford government’s proposed bill “welcome news for workers and businesses of all sizes throughout Ontario, as well as a bold step in creating a stronger and more prosperous province.”

Worker advocates organized an emergency rally outside the Ministry of Labour this week following the government’s introduction of Bill 47, which will repeal the bulk of new worker protections brought in earlier this year under the Liberal government through Bill 148.

Here’s a rundown of how your rights on the job will change if Bill 47 is passed.

Minimum Wage

A scheduled bump from $14 to $15 is cancelled. The minimum wage will be frozen at $14 until 2020, when increases will become tied to inflation.

A provision requiring the government to review minimum wage levels every five years is cancelled.

Equal Pay for Equal Work

Temporary, casual, and part-time workers will no longer be entitled to be paid the same wage for doing the same job as permanent or directly-hired colleagues.

Bill 148 expanded existing protections for women to be paid the same as men to precarious workers. Bill 47 keeps the gender-based equal pay rules but removes the right of all workers, including women concerned about discriminatory pay, to request that their employer review their rate of pay.

Sick Days

Workers will no longer be entitled to two paid sick days and eight unpaid emergency leave days.

Instead, they will get three sick days, three personal days and two bereavement days. Workers will not be able to use the two bereavement days for other kids’ emergencies if they do not experience a loss in the family that year. All leave days will be unpaid.

Employers will once again be allowed to ask for doctor’s notes.

Scheduling

Numerous scheduling rights will change. Workers with three months service will no longer have the right to request schedule or work location changes.

Employers will no longer need to pay a minimum of three hours’ wages if an employee is on call but doesn’t get a shift.

Workers will not have the right to refuse last-minute requests to work shifts they weren’t scheduled for.

Workers will no longer receive three hours pay if their shift is cancelled within 48 hours before it was meant to start.

Under Bill 47, workers who “regularly” work more than three hours but are given less than three hours when they show up will still get paid for at least three hours work.

Employee Misclassification

It will remain illegal to misclassify an employee as an independent contractor, a category of worker that has no protection under employment laws.

However, Bill 47 will remove a new measure that put the onus on employers to prove that a worker was a true independent contractor when a dispute over classification arises.

Enforcement

Maximum penalties for “notices of contravention,” or a ticket for breaking basic employment laws, will decrease. Bill 47 also drastically reduces fines for violating the Labour Relations Act, which governs dealings between unions and employers.

However, Bill 47 will not amend other areas of enforcement, including new powers to charge interest on unpaid wages as well as expanded collections and information sharing powers in wage theft cases.

Workers also won’t have to contact their employer before filing an employment standards claim, a new protection brought in by Bill 148 that remains unchanged.

Union Rights

Bill 47 cancels measures that made it easier for some vulnerable workers -- those in building services, home care workers, or working through temp agencies -- to unionize.

The new legislation also revives rules around strikes and lockouts introduced under former Conservative premier Mike Harris. Under Bill 47, workers on strike or locked out for more than six months will no longer have the right to get their job back when the dispute is resolved.

Leaves of Absence

These provisions, many of which were introduced to bring Ontario in line with new federal legislation, will remain largely intact.

For example, workers can still take up to 17 weeks leave to care for a critically ill adult family member, or up to 37 if the family member is a child. The Conservatives will also keep the increased 65 week parental leave entitlement.

Increased leave for those who have experienced a pregnancy loss will also stay.

Sexual and Domestic Violence Leave

These protections, which give workers up to 15 weeks of protected leave in the case of sexual or domestic violence, will stay in place.

Holiday

New provisions giving three weeks holiday to workers with five years’ service at the same company will stay.