December 12, 2008

Employment Standards Act amendment intended to protect temporary workers

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

People working through temporary help agencies will find the protection they have long desired thanks to recently introduced provincial legislation.

The Employment Standards Act will be amended to deliver more fairness for low-income workers. More than 700,000 people in the province have temporary jobs, many through temporary help agencies, that are not just clerical but in a wide range of occupations from manufacturing to business services and general labour.

“This legislation reflects the realities of today’s workplace and labour market,” said Peter Fonseca, labour minister of Ontario in an interview with Daily Commercial News.

There are no definite numbers on how many temporary help workers, hired through temp agencies, there are in the construction.

Today an employee of an agency might be assigned to a single client business for several months, or even years. In many cases, agency employees work side-by-side with the staff of an agency’s client business, doing the same type of work, added Fonseca.

The legislation, if passed, will:

• Make sure that temp workers are not unfairly prevented from accessing permanent jobs when employers want to hire them from agencies

• Prohibit temporary help agencies from charging fees to workers for things such as resume writing and interview preparation

• Guarantee that employees have the information they need about their assignments including pay schedules and job descriptions

• Ensure that employees have access to information about their rights under the Employment Standards Act

Fonseca added that if the proposed legislation passes, the government intends to introduce another regulation that allows “elect to work” employees to have the same rights to notice of termination and severance pay.

The Workers’ Action Centre said the temporary worker legislation is delivering long overdue basic rights for workers.

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