Business owners voice anxiety over 32 per cent minimum wage hike in 18-month period. ...
Category: Jobs and Employment
Premiers boast merit of annual summer gathering at COF 2017
Ontario's Premier recalls a rare kumbaya moment at this year's Council of the Federation gathering in Edmonton. ...
Labour and management square off over Liberals’ labour law reforms
Workers and owners in three industries battled it out in committee hearings over proposed changes to 30-year-old labour laws. ...
Domestic violence and unionization take centre stage at labour law hearings
Groups propose five days' paid leave due to domestic violence and grapple with card-based union certification. ...
Few small businesses would be impacted by $15 minimum wage: CCPA report
Premier Wynne acknowledged the heat her government’s policy has been taking from small businesses at committee this week. ...
Tories, Grits trade barbs over $15 minimum wage
While an all-party committee tours the province studying a sweeping new labour bill, the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives are taking turns schooling the other over its impact and the legislative process. ...
Summer hearings for new labour law kicks off with focus on $15 minimum wage
Meanwhile, businesses commissioned an economic impact analysis of their own after months of asking the government to do so. ...
Ontario edges toward precarious employment as full-time jobs fall, part-time jobs rise in June
Grits face criticism for failing to adapt to the gig economy. ...
Heard: Small business optimism ‘took a nosedive’ post-labour reform announcement
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business says its members are feeling increasingly uncertain since the Liberals announced sweeping labour reforms in May. ...
Dozens of exemptions remain under revamped employment standards bill, for now
Labour Minister Kevin Flynn has committed to reviewing the exemptions starting this fall, based on a recommendation arising from the Changing Workplaces review ...
Majority support Ontario’s $15 minimum wage, labour law reforms: poll
Respondents most likely to favour the reforms skewed Liberal and New Democrat, while those opposed tended to back the Progressive Conservatives. ...
Revamped labour bill hits the table, will be sped through to committee
The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act enshrines a $15 minimum wage, among other things. ...
The winners and losers of Ontario’s proposed labour law reforms
QP Briefing breaks down who got the best and worst of the proposed changes to the province's labour laws. ...
Pressure mounts as Ontario readies response to Changing Workplaces review
The government has not indicated if it will implement any of the recommendations, but that hasn't stopped business and labour groups from publicly airing what they believe the course of action should be. ...
Wynne: Changing Workplaces recommendations will be addressed in the ‘very near future’
The long awaited 419-page report makes 173 recommendations, including new legislation. ...
Liberals chide PCs for ‘quietly’ killing ‘anti-worker bill’
The Liberals criticized the PCs for pulling a bill that was criticized for being introduced in the first place. ...
PC Leader’s call to protect Ontario unions from ‘foreign takeovers’ raises ‘partisan’ eyebrows
"There must be pigs flying out there right now," the Liberal Labour Minister said. ...
Fewer job-seekers help push Ontario unemployment rate to lowest level since 2001
However, StatsCan said the drop in the unemployment rate in Ontario was “mostly due to a decline in the number of youth searching for work.” ...
Flynn teases ‘multi-pronged response’ to Changing Workplaces review ahead of mid-May release
"Some of it will be policy-driven, some of it will be of a regulatory nature, and some of it will probably be in a legislative form as well," the Labour Minister said. ...
Liberals accuse Jagmeet Singh of using temp workers as ‘props’ to ramp up leadership bid
NDP deputy leader fired back that the Grits are attempting to distract from their poor record on protecting temporary workers. ...
Call to close Ontario’s gender wage gap by 2025 ‘reasonable,’ Flynn says
Equal pay advocates and opposition parties charged that the government is delaying work to close the gender pay gap. ...
‘Late to the party’: Labour minister shoots down PC MPP’s call for ‘nonpartisan’ gender pay gap committee
A working group to bridge the wage gap between men and women in Ontario will meet for the first time on Thursday. ...
Labour Minister: NDP unionization bill ‘misses the mark,’ will be addressed in Changing Workplaces review
A final report for the Changing Workplaces review has landed on Minister Kevin Flynn's desk but it will be 'three or four weeks' before it is made public. ...
NDP charges Liberals ‘dragging their feet’ on Changing Workplaces review
The Labour Minister says he will have a public release date for the final recommendations "soon." ...
Labour economist lauds province’s ‘long overdue’ move to update fair wage policy
Labour Minister Kevin Flynn is seeking public input to help "ensure government contract workers continue to receive fair wages and benefits” and “to protect them from unfair competition when bidding on government contrac ...
Changing Workplaces recommendations starting to roll in, Labour Minister says
Kevin Flynn says "it would not be unreasonable" to expect potential legislative changes this fall. ...
Heard: Changing Workplaces recommendations could be delayed by a month
MOL says the extension is "to ensure they are available to answer any questions the minister or ministry staff might have, or to provide clarification." ...
Labour minister cagey about possible changes to unionization rules
"I think anybody would be fooling themselves to think you’d go through a Changing Workplaces Review and not look at the Labour Relations Act, and then not look at how people choose how to express their opinions on freedo ...
“I’m going to deal with the truth,” of disappearing jobs of the past, says Wynne
To Ontarians who worry their communities aren't viable any more, the Premier says the province must adapt. ...
Move to let employers to self-regulate health and safety raises eyebrows
The New Democrats charged the labour ministry with trying to shift the responsibility of workplace inspections to the very people that the government should hold accountable. ...
Emergency leave changes skew toward Liberals’ ‘powerful friends’ in auto sector, labour critic says
Labour Minister Kevin Flynn said experimenting on the auto sector was decided in part by the government's special advisers who are heading up the Changing Workplaces Review, and was no secret. ...
Ontario to test new personal emergency leave provisions on auto sector
The pilot project, proposed through a regulation filed Monday, would amend the Employment Standards Act to split 10 days of unpaid emergency leave into two categories. ...
Heard: Labour group pledges to enshrine paid domestic violence leave in future collective agreements
NDP MPP Peggy Sattler currently has a private members' bill at committee that would amend both the Employment Standards Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Act to include up to 10 days of paid leave and accommodat ...
Seen: Gender wage gap working group 2.0 established
Labour Minister Kevin Flynn will detail a plan to bridge the gender wage gap - an almost 30-per-cent-wide canyon in Ontario - by the spring of 2018. ...
Changing Workplaces review delayed as business prodded to consult
Final recommendations for changes to the Employment Standards Act and Labour Relations Act are expected in February 2017, with changes to personal emergency leave provisions coming this fall session. ...
Ontario blowing smoke over workplace safety in mental-health care, says Smokey Thomas
OPSEU is linking underfunding of mental health care to violence on the job. ...
Seen: NDP MPP’s domestic-violence leave bill passes second reading
Peggy Sattler's bill, if passed, would allow up to 10 days of paid leave for victims of domestic or sexual abuse. ...
Heard: ‘Live in my shoes in a job that takes me below the poverty line’
A woman balancing three jobs is testing the Labour Minister's mettle after a Ryerson report shows precarious work could signal a looming public health crisis, particularly for immigrant and refugee women. ...
Tug-of-war heating up over Changing Workplaces
Submissions for the biggest overhaul to employment law in nearly two decades are rolling in, and so far, they suggest the labour ministry might have to do its best balancing act when the time comes to craft new legislati ...
Domestic violence leave on the table as part of Changing Workplaces review: Minister
The substance of an NDP private member's bill that would give victims of domestic violence up to 10 days of paid leave is being considered as part of the province's Changing Workplaces Review. ...
New working group will chart Ontario’s course to close gender pay gap by 2018
Labour Minister Kevin Flynn says he will have a "very firm action plan" in place by 2018 that will at some point in the future bridge the nearly 30-per-cent pay gap between men and women in Ontario. ...
‘Net zero’ collective bargaining outdated, but government won’t ‘make it rain,’ minister says
But NDP Deputy Leader Jagmeet Singh says the government has been “colossally horrible" in public-sector collective bargaining. ...
WSIB, OFL talk reform as Ombudsman mulls over investigation
Labour Minister Kevin Flynn said if the two come up with recommendations for changes to the way the workers' compensation board operates, he'll pursue reform. ...
Injured workers chide WSIB over new premium rate reduction
Next year, employers will see a 5 per cent premium rate reduction, says the WSIB. ...
Throne Speech 2016: More help for manufacturers on the way
“Your government will partner with manufacturers and automakers to attract new mandates and the next generation of advanced manufacturing and engineering talent,” stated the throne speech. ...
Business, labour groups at odds over Ontario’s personal emergency leave
Ontario is rewriting its labour laws, including personal emergency leave, public feedback for which was due this week. ...
Gender pay gap report recommends doing away with ‘motherhood penalty’
Some advocacy groups are calling the government's response to pay disparity lukewarm. ...
Labour ministry extends contract for Changing Workplaces advisers to 2017
Special advisers C. Michael Mitchell and John C. Murray could be on the government's payroll until Feb. 28, 2017. ...
Seen: Fill-in-the-blank policy templates for new workplace sexual harassment rules
Ontario is toughening up workplace sexual harassment laws in September, and employers and employees can now take a look at what legally constitutes inappropriate behaviour. Bill 132, which received royal assent in Mar ...
NDP targets temp worker agencies as a byelection issue
The party's "fair day's pay" proposal would tighten up employment laws that allow agencies to charge employer clients a mark-up for supplying staff. ...
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