With three public consultations already held in the GTA and Ottawa, the Ministry of Labour’s Changing Workplaces Review moves to Guelph tomorrow. The Review, led by special advisors, C. Michael Mitchell, and the Honourable John C. Murray, is looking at how the Ontario’s Employment Standards Act and Labour Relations Act should be amended to meet the changing needs of workers and employers. In particular, the hearings call for feedback on impacts of:
- The increase in temporary jobs, part-time work, and self-employment
- The rising prominence of service sector jobs
- The effects of globalization and trade liberalization
- Accelerating technological change
- Greater workplace diversity
The scope of this review does not directly cover issues of workers’ compensation and occupational safety, which were partially addressed in the 2014 “Stronger Workplaces for a Stronger Economy Act” (Bill 18) and the Law Commission of Ontario’s 2012 “Vulnerable workers and precarious work”. Nevertheless, the Review topics have obvious connections with issues of coverage, new hazards, underreporting, return to work….
Further reading:
Work and wealth reporter Sarah Motjehedzadeh. Toronto Star (read her current series on precarious employment, including findings of the Workers’ Action Centre research)
Block, Sheila. 2015 Jun. 15. A Higher Standard: The Case for Holding Low-wage Employers in Ontario to a Higher Standard. Toronto: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Ontario. (Report tracks a growing reliance on low-wage, precarious employment in Ontario, how these workers have less access to the protections of membership in a trade union, and the need to modernize the outdated regulatory laws)
Gelman, Jon. 2015 Apr. 14. “On-call Employment: Uber on Steroids” Workers’ Compensation (blog) asks how “on-demand staffing” will challenge the traditional legal concept of “arising out of and in the course of employment” for determining compensability (and how it may affect universal coverage?)
Institute for Work & Health. Vulnerable Workers (links to IWH ongoing research on workplace injury risks, including “Temporary Work Agencies and Workplace Health and Safety”