The Better Jobs Act And What You May Loose By Owen Riel

Worker protections that may be on the chopping block. What you can expect in the months to come.

First of all, what is The Better Jobs Act? The Better Jobs Act, otherwise known as Bill 148, was an act passed in Ontario under the Liberal Party in 2017. The most famous part of the act was the minimum wage increase from $11.60 to $14 for adults and from $10.90 to $13.15 for students under 18. This is also scheduled to go up to $15 for adults and $14.10 for students respectively. In the bill the were a few other things that students may not have known will be given to them. One of these things is the Three Hour Rule, which dictates that any time you are called into work you must be paid for at least three hours even if you don’t work for three hours. The purpose of this provision is to prevent employers from scheduling short shifts and having employees turn up for work for only one or two hours. Another provision of the bill that may be important to you as a student is that you will have the right to refuse a shift if you don’t receive at least 96 hours notice for that shift. In other words, you will have to be given four days notice to be booked for a shift. If you are not given this amount of notice, you will have the right to refuse the shift. Employers must also give you 48 hours notice to cancel a shift. If they cancel the shift later than 48 hours prior to the shift, they must pay you for three hours work. You also have the right to two paid sick days a year and eight unpaid sick days a year.It is important to keep in mind that some of these changes are currently in place and some of them are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2019 (I would encourage any students who are working or looking for work to visit this website https://www.ontario.ca/page/plan-fair-workplaces-and-better-jobs-bill-148 for information on what is in effect now and what is scheduled to take effect later).However, these changes may not be permanent.The current Progressive Conservative government often voices their opposition to this bill and have promised to scrap the bill. They are currently discussing what parts of the bill to get rid of and what parts they will keep. Here’s what we know as of right now:When Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, Jim Wilson, was asked what would be kept and what wouldn’t, he said ”...There’s some things we want to keep, for instance the $14 an hour, we’re definitely going to keep that…” As for other provisions, almost everything is up in the air.

Photo of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Deputy Premier Christine Elliott and Jim Wilson, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.(Taken from The Hamilton Spectator) In the Ontario Legislature, Premier Doug Ford was asked the following by MPP Michael Coteau, “Does the Premier believe that work can be cancelled only hours before a shift with no compensation, and my question … to the Premier is, will the Premier commit today to not rolling back this important aspect within the legislation?”. This is referring to the provision that says work cannot be cancelled with less than 48 hours notice without 3 hours pay, to which the Premier responded “When I travelled across this province and talked to thousands and thousands of people, I found out very, very quickly the number one issue was hydro and number two was bill 148… we’re getting rid of Bill 148.” In other words, the government is not making any commitments other than to get rid of the bill. The government has been sending out mixed signals as far as to what parts of the bill will be kept and what parts will be scrapped. It is pretty safe to assume that the minimum wage will not be going down, but it’s likely also safe to assume it won’t be going up. Other than that, there is no way to know what will be scrapped, and we don’t know what path the government will go down to find an alternative.All that can be said is, keep one eye on the news at all times.