Ontario’s labour market has increasingly become fragmented between the haves and the have-nots.
The haves are generally those with employment contracts that fall under the common law as well as employees in unionized workplaces. A second tier are those whose employment falls under the minimum provisions of the Employment Standards Act.
The have-nots are clearly those who benefit from neither the common law nor the act. And according to an interim report on vulnerable workers released by the Law Commission of Ontario last week, an increasing number of people are falling under the have-not category.
As the commission noted, about 22 per cent of jobs in Ontario involve precarious work, something the report defines as employment with low wages and having at least two of three other features: no pension, no union, and small firm size.
As Ontario teachers battle the provincial government during contract negotiations and other workers fight to retain hard-earned wages and benefits, it’s important to remember that it’s the vulnerable employees that we should be paying the most attention to.
The act, the report noted, exempts certain categories of workers while some businesses misclassify staff as self-employed and thereby leave them with less access to basic statutory protections, including certain employment insurance benefits. In challenging economic times, it’s easy to see how the problem will worsen.
The report, then, makes a number of reasonable recommendations for addressing the issue. They include reviewing the exemptions from the act, looking at extending the personal emergency leave provisions to employees at workplaces with less than 50 employees, and making greater efforts to reduce the misclassification of employees as self-employed.
What’s also key, the report noted, is enforcement. While many workers don’t have the benefit of the statutory minimums due to the exemptions, the act doesn’t do much for those who fall under it if there’s little enforcement. Focusing on the most problematic sectors, as the report recommends, is certainly a reasonable approach.
It’s likely that not all of the recommendations will be feasible. But given the probable increase in vulnerable employment, it’s time to consider the issue and the report seriously. With the commission seeking feedback on the interim report, there’s a good opportunity to have those discussions now.
-
Glenn Kauth
