Ontario cracks down on bad employers

Well, later today, Ontario’s Labor Minister will be unveiling phase five of the Working for Workers Act. The proposed bill aims to hold bad employers accountable for exploiting workers and send a stern message with hefty fines. But before this fifth phase is revealed, Labor Minister David Puccini joins us now. Welcome, Minister. Thank you so much for taking the time. Thank you for having me, Candace. No, it’s our pleasure. It’s our pleasure. So this is quite the comprehensive bill. It covers many things, everything for, you know, newcomers rights, better cancer coverage for firefighters and critical illness protection when when you need to take leave, all among other things. Can you give us a sense of what’s coming up in this fifth phase? Yeah, thanks very much for asking and thanks again for having me. As you mentioned, this is our most comprehensive piece of of legislation to date since we formed government. And the one of the exciting pieces that that we’re including in this bill is protections for women. I mean we have a productivity issue in Canada and I think it’s no secret that we’ve got to get people working and that we have aspirations to build better transit. Everybody in the GTHA wants it, Ontario line, hospitals, schools, etcetera and homes. We’ve made an ambitious commitment for 1.5 million homes and you can’t do that with 50% of our workforce on the sidelines. You just can’t. So making construction and job sites more accessible for women. A building and construction trades people person of the survey estimated that you know women had said one of the biggest attracting factors is cleanliness in washrooms. And so we’re tackling that the first jurisdiction in Canada to maintain schedules and including it in the Occupational Health and Safety Act. In addition, we’ll be the first to require menstrual products on site for construction sites of of larger than 20 people in more than three months in in duration. OK. And there’s also a decision to add virtual harassment to the definitions of workplace harassment and workplace sexual harassment in the Occupational Safety Pardon Me Health and Safety Act. Talk about what that aims to achieve specifically in the workplace. Well, I think the, you know, post pandemic when we’re seeing technology increasingly disrupting the workplace and we see a lot of people working for home, we want to embed into the Occupational Health and Safety Act protections against virtual harassment. It’s one of the things we’ve heard went out and about around Ontario from so many workers across the province. I know in recent conversations sitting down with Ellis Don, where we’ll be later today, they also supported our prevention Council. So it’s yet another step to protect workers in Ontario. I mean, we’re a growing province. We’ve got a lot of big investments coming in. We want to make sure we’re protecting workers no matter where they’re working. And that includes at home. And as we kind of alluded to off the top, this new act includes heavier fines for exploitative workers. A couple of Freedom of Freedom of Information Acts a couple of years ago revealed unpaid wages owed to thousands of people in Ontario. 1,000,000 of dollars worth of wages. How does this act aim to address that? Yeah, what you referenced actually affected 10,000 workers. So again, we’re going to have the highest fines for bad actors in Ontario, a doubling fines to to $500,000 for those found in violation and that’s that’s obviously convicted in a court. But in addition, those withholding wages, we’re ensuring that our inspectors have the ability to level fines. So you know, three strikes, you’re out, we all learn that on the baseball field, 3 strikes you’re out. And I think we take an educational first approach. But if someone is habitually withholding wages and they’ve been found in violation once, twice, we have labour inspectors the ability to lay fines. Now under the previous government, that was the equivalent of about an iPhone, cost of an iPhone. We’re at times in that by 5 / 5000 dollars now and adding a multiplier effect. So, Candace, if you do more than one worker and you’re affecting a group of workers, it’s multiplied by the number of workers you’re withholding wages from. So really sending a clear signal that as our economy grows, our workers are going to benefit as well. And any unscrupulous actor that would withhold wages, we’re sending a clear signal that that’s not OK, OK. And before we let you go, mentioned the announcement will be made at Ellis Dawn building, definitely a huge priority for your government and and just getting that labor force reinforced as well. Talk about measures to enhance skilled trades, maybe make them more attractive to this new generation. And just to bolster that sector. Well, I think, yeah, today I mean it’s about saying that we’re taking the expectations on on you know bathroom facilities on Bay Street and we’re bringing it to Main Street. But in addition to get more youth into the trades, Minister Leche and I recently announced the FAST program which is enabling students in grade 11:00 and 12:00 to take a portion of their courses on on job sites experiential learning. And if you think we allow Advanced Placement or IB programs which give students credits to university degrees, why aren’t we doing the same for skilled trades? Well, today in Ontario, thanks to Premier Ford’s leadership, we are and and enabling them to get hours that will account to level one certificate of qualification into the trades. It’s just yet another step to get people into the trades. You’ve got a career for life when you’re in the trades. Okay. Well, thank you so much for your time. I know it’s going to be a busy day and we’ll keep in touch and and see what else the labor ministry has has in store. Thank you again. Thank you so much for having me. It’s our pleasure.