Our employers steal our wages.
Our government allows it.
It’s time we stopped it.
Wage Theft Crisis in Ontario
Over the last 10 years, $200 million was stolen from workers wages across Ontario. Yet only $80 million was recovered by the Ministry of Labour. Why isn’t the government doing more to protect us?
That’s why the Stop Wage Theft campaign launched to call on the Ontario government to fix our laws, enforce our laws and ensure workers have real power and job protection
Send an email to your Member of Provincial Parliament now. Tell them that we need to:
1. Enforcement of the Employment Standards Act (ESA)
Employers who break the law are rarely caught. And even if they are, there are no meaningful penalties for wage theft. As a result, stolen wages often go unpaid. There is little risk that employers who break the law will be caught and if they are, there is no penalty for wage theft and stolen wages often go unpaid. The Ontario government must stop relying on employer’s voluntary compliance and start enforcing the ESA. We need action now to:
- Identify all employers’ who break the law and steal workers’ wages through proactive and expanded inspections;
- Make sure employers repay all wages owing to workers by improving collections and prosecuting those that do not pay;
- Make sure employers compensate workers for the damage caused by wage theft by paying 3 times the wages stolen; and,
- Penalize all wage theft employers to stop future violations.
2. Close the gaps in the law that allow wage theft to happen
Outdated labour laws cannot deal with new employer strategies to evade and avoid following the ESA for their employees that make their products or provide their services. Specifically, Mmany layered business subcontracting and misclassifying employees as independent contractors fuels wage theft in our economy. We need action on:
- Make companies at the top of the supply chain responsible (jointly and severally liable) for wages and ESA rights owed down the contracting chain.
- Stop employers who misclassify employees as independent contractors. Modernise the legal test of employees by presuming we are employees unless the company can prove otherwise through a simple, cumulative test to prove we are not an employee (the “ABC test”).
3. Workers need the power and job protection to enforce their rights while they are on the job.
The government relies on workers with the least power to identify and report wage theft. Yet the government but does not give workers the power to do so. We need action to:
- Employees must have the right to take action together without employer interference to enforce ESA rights and improve working conditions. This is called protection for concerted activity.
- Workers need “just cause” protections that require employers to provide valid reasons before firing employees.
- Employees must have interim reinstatement, where appropriate, while their claim is investigated for reprisals, concerted activity and unjust dismissal.
