New labour legislation to continue gig worker precarity

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Image of app-based food delivery workers and customers. One delivery worker is on a scooter, while the other is handing food to customers as a person pays him.

B.C. Employment Standards Coalition Co-Chairs David Fairey and Pamela Charron have just published a new article in the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Policy Note. They explain how B.C.’s new gig worker legislation reinforces precarity for app-based ride-hail and food delivery gig workers. They also note that these workers are “predominantly racialized new immigrants who work long hours without overtime pay and without any pay while signed on waiting for trip assignments.”

You can read their full article here: https://www.policynote.ca/bill-48/

It’s 2023. BC Farm Workers Deserve Basic Minimum Wage Guarantees

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Photo by Eric Buermeyer via Shutterstock.

The majority of B.C. households are stressed because of debt and inflation. It’s even worse for one group of farm workers who, legally, may earn less than minimum wage.

In their new op-ed in The Tyee, Coalition member Anelyse Weiler and Co-Chair David Fairey call for the BC Ministry of Labour to finally ensure basic minimum wage protections for the hardworking men and women who harvest fruits, vegetables and flowers in BC. Their piece was also published on Policynote with the BC Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

For years, the BC Employment Standards Coalition has been actively advocating for the same recommendation put forward by the BC government’s own Fair Wages Commission: the hourly minimum wage should be for the floor for all agricultural workers, and piece rates could remain as an optional incentive. David Fairey recently published a journal article in BC Studies on this issue: Legislated Wage Suppression: Farm Worker Piece Rate Wage System Needs to End in the BC Blueberry Industry.

Labour Minister Harry Bains has not provided a reasonable explanation for maintaining this discriminatory minimum wage legislation, and it needs to end.

New report: Justice Denied: The Systemic Failure to Enforce BC Employment Standards

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Today, the BC Employment Standards Coalition is releasing our latest report: Justice Denied: The Systemic Failure to Enforce BC Employment Standards.

This report exposes the failure of the BC Employment Standards Branch to effectively and efficiently enforce the Employment Standards Act. Because of this failure, thousands of BC workers are being denied their rights under the law. Over 80% of workers in the private sector in BC have no other employment rights relating to wages, benefits, and other basic working conditions than those provided in the Employment Standards Act.

This report tells the story of:

  • Lengthy delays in the resolution of complaints.
  • A continued primary focus on the administration of a complaints-based system.
  • The failure of the Branch to proactively investigate employers, industries, and sectors with a history of Employment Standards Act violations.
  • The barriers to employees in having their complaints addressed.
  • The suppression of complaints.
  • Employer bias in Branch practices and procedures.
  • Procedural unfairness in complaint investigation and adjudication.
  • The inadequacy of Branch budgets and staff resources to provide effective enforcement of the Act.

The findings and recommendations are based on a historical review of the activities of the Employment Standards Branch; Ministry of Labour reports, staffing resources, and budgets; employment standards review reports; Employment Standards Tribunal decisions; and case files from workers’ organizations.

We urge the B.C. government to improve the working lives of British Columbians who are the victims of wage theft and the denial of legislated rights. Specifically, the report provides the following seven recommendations:

  • Increase Employment Standards Branch annual funding by at least $14 million.
  • Reinstate proactive investigations into problem industries and sectors, like agriculture; construction; hospitality; restaurant/food services; caregiving, including in-home care, long-term care homes, and daycares; food processing; building maintenance services; and retail.
  • Proactively investigate and address the widespread misclassification of workers as independent contractors, such as in the gig economy.
  • Collect and disburse all monies found to be owed to workers.
  • Shorten wait times to ensure complaints are acted upon and investigated within 90 days of the receipt of the complaint.
  • Ensure procedural fairness in the handling of complaints by clearly setting out and making publicly available expected timelines for each step in the complaints process, increasing communication between the ESB and complainants during the process, and providing specific training to employment standards Officers regarding their duties as administrative decision makers.
  • Increase the monetary value of penalties and award a penalty for each violation that impacts every employee of an employer to deter employers from repeat offenses and to create an environment of compliance.

The BC Employment Standards Coalition brings together organizations, advocates, and workers in a campaign for employment standards legislation that provides decent wages, working conditions, respect, and dignity for all workers in the province of British Columbia.

BC EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS COALITION
4778 Fernglen Place, Burnaby, BC V5G 3W1
Phone: 604-430-6036 | Fax: 604-435-6024
Email: david(at)labourconsultingservices.com
www.bcemploymentstandardscoalition.com



BC Budget fails to address the crisis of employment standards enforcement

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BC Budget fails to address the crisis of employment standards enforcement

VANCOUVER — Thousands of BC workers are experiencing loss of wages and denial of other basic workplace rights because the provincial Ministry of Labour is not adequately enforcing employment standards and the new provincial budget fails to address this law enforcement crisis, the BC Employment Standards Coalition says.

“Workers are waiting over a year to recuperate thousands of dollars in wages after filing Employment Standards complaints, something that could be prevented if laws were followed by employers in the first place,” says Pamela Charron, Acting Executive Director of the Worker Solidarity Network.

BC’s Employment Standards Branch is supposed to enforce the Employment Standards Act (ESA), which requires protected workers to have basic minimum standards of pay and conditions of employment. However, many workers are not protected because of the systemic failure of the Employment Standards Branch, the Coalition says.

The Coalition will soon release the report, “Justice Denied: The Systemic Failure to Enforce BC Employment Standards”, that documents these failures. 

Lengthy delays between 18 months and three years or more in the investigation and resolution of ESA violation complaints is one of the Employment Standards Branch’s main failures. The number of ESA violation complaints received by the Branch increased by 49 per cent in the past three years from 4,958 in 2018 to 7,403 in 2020, but only 47 per cent of complaints were resolved within six months in 2020/21.

“The Employment Standards Branch has the potential to be a powerful tool to provide access to justice for workers in British Columbia. Unfortunately, years of inadequate funding have led to a significant loss of confidence in this institution’s ability to carry out its mandate,” says Jonathon Braun, staff lawyer with the Migrant Workers Centre.

The Coalition says the provincial government must double the Employment Standards Branch budget in order to hire and adequately train substantially more enforcement staff. This would significantly speed up the complaint investigation and resolution process and allow proactive investigation of employers who break employment standards laws, says Coalition co-chair David Fairey, adding that laws being violated include widespread wage theft and other rights violations that must be addressed effectively and fairly. 

The legislature’s Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services agrees with this call as its November 2021 budget consultations report noted that the Employment Standards Branch needs a significant increase in funding. The committee also said the Branch should “Expedite the enforcement of labour protections for gig workers.” However, the government’s latest budget includes no funding increases for the Ministry of Labour for the next three years, signalling a growing crisis in enforcement of employment standards for the foreseeable future the Coalition believes.

For more information please contact:

David Fairey 604.430.6036, david@labourconsultingservices.com

Pamela Charron 705.698.6380, pam@workersolidarity.ca

Increasing the Employment Standards Branch budget – our submission

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The B.C. Employment Standards Coalition is calling for an increase of $14 million to be allocated to the Employment Standards Branch.

These resources should go toward:

  • Hiring more staff to address the backlogged complaints and increasing number of complaints;
  • The expansion of Branch enforcement activities to include proactive investigations;
  • The opening of more regional offices;
  • Extending office hours; and
  • Providing the resources for the Employment Standards Branch to accomplish the stated goals and objectives of the current provincial Ministry of Labour.

This past September, the B.C. Employment Standards Coalition submitted our written submission to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services on the need for a significant increase in the Employment Standards Branch 2022 budget.

Please click here to see our full submission.