Employment Standards

The Employment Standards Act was amended on December 20, 2000.  Some of the changes were minor and necessary.  On the other hand, some of the changes are not good for employees.  Minister Stockwell was quoted in the Globe and Mail as saying that the changes eliminate red tape.  That's the red tape that prevents employers from tromping on employees.

One of the changes is that an employee may request that vacation be taken in shorter increments, if the employer agrees. As it stood, vacation had to be taken in weekly blocks.  Who does this benefit?  Not the employee.  Any employee that wanted to take vacation a few days here, a few days there, would be allowed to do so if the employer agreed to the request.  On the other hand, there was no way at all for an employer to force that situation on an employee.

What has changed?  You still need the employer?s consent. The change just makes it easy for the employer to force the situation on the employee.  If your employer tells you that he wants you to take your vacation by taking Fridays off for 10 weeks, what happens if you say ?no??  Technically, nothing.  Realistically, you have just been blacklisted.

Likewise, if an employee consents in writing, the maximum work week has been extended from 48 hours to 60 hours.  Previously, an employer had to request a permit from the Ministry to have a 60 hour work week.  This worked as a check, to make sure that the employer was not abusing the system.  Here?s the government?s real agenda: they don?t want the administrative cost of dealing with permit applications.

Again, if an employee wanted to work longer hours, what employer prevented the employee from doing so?  It just allows an employer to put undue pressure on employees. 

The idea behind the 48 hour maximum and the overtime provisions of the Act were to discourage employers from overworking their employees and, instead, encourage them to hire more employees.  This reduces unemployment.  The changes to the Act are a giant step backward.

The changes were unnecessary.  There is no benefit to employees.  The only benefit is that the Act is more open to abuse by bad employers.  Employers and employees do not have equal bargaining power.  Now, the employees have even less protection.

The provincial government had the annoying habit of naming all legislation ?The so-and-so Improvement Act?.  This time, at least they were honest enough to leave the ?Improvement? out of the title.