Although not yet in force at the time of this writing,
the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017, otherwise
known as Bill 148, will bring major changes to both the
Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) and the Labour
Relations Act when it inevitably becomes the law-of-the-land.
The bill was significantly amended in August of this year, and
it may yet be subject to further revision; however, it is clear that
the upcoming legislative changes will be considerably more favour-able
to employees than employers. Indeed, despite a consultation
process that involved input from employers and employer orga-nizations,
the August amendments seem to largely ignore the
recommendations and requests put forward by the employer
community.
In addition to the much-publicized (and much-criticized) in-creases
to the minimum wage, employers’ new obligations under
legal words
the ESA will almost certainly also include the following, among
others:
1. Equal pay for equal work (amendments contemplated for
April 1, 2018)
The basic principle here is that – subject to wage differentials
based on merit, seniority and other objectively justifiable criteria
– employers must apply the same pay scale to all employees who
perform a particular job. In other words, a worker employed on a
part-time, temporary, seasonal or casual basis must be paid on the
same scale as his or her counterparts who perform the same job on
a full-time basis.
Further to those requirements, employees will have the right
to request a review of their wages; and, where a differential is
identified, employers will have a corresponding obligation to ei-ther
justify or correct the differential. Moreover, the amendments
minifilm / Shutterstock.com
Bill 148 – Employers Should Prepare
for New Compliance Obligations
…AND MORE ESA COMPLAINTS
By Jason Beeho
HRPROFESSIONALNOW.CA ❚ OCTOBER 2017 ❚ 15
/HRPROFESSIONALNOW.CA