New legislation would require Ontario temp agencies and recruiters to be licensed

By -

Ontario to offer help to temp workers

Ontario is set to introduce legislation that would require temporary help agencies and recruiters to be licensed.

If approved, the proposed legislation would require Temporary Help Agencies and recruiters to have a license to operate. It would also spell out penalties for unlicensed temp agencies and recruiters, as well as businesses who use unlicensed agencies.

The province is looking at hiring a dedicated team of officers to crack down on Temporary help agencies and recruiters who are exploiting or trafficking workers.

Labour Minister Monte McNaughton said there are more than 3,000 agencies in the province and the vast majority operate ethically, but not all.

“Unfortunately, some are lawbreakers who exploit their workers,” he said. “This needs to change.”

Ministry of Labour inspections have found multiple temporary help agencies that are paying workers below minimum wage and denying basic employment rights, McNaughton said.

“The underground activity they found makes millions of dollars off the backs of workers by not paying minimum wage, not paying holiday pay and not paying overtime pay,” he said.

“They also found recruiters charging workers illegal hiring fees, and then clawing back their pay. This ends now. It’s time we return these stolen paycheques to the workers who earn them and level the playing field for all agencies and recruiters.”

Labour inspections at farms, retirement homes, food processing and warehousing facilities have found more than $3.3 million owing to employees, and about half of that has been recovered, the government said.

Under the proposed legislation, the agencies and recruiters would need to provide an irrevocable letter of credit that could be used to repay wages owed to workers, if need be, and would be vetted before being issued a licence.

The government wants the licensing system to be in place in 2024. In the meantime, Ontario is proposing to hire a team of officers to address illegal practices.


Written by
Fred Alvarado

Journalist
FOCUS Media Arts Centre


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Regent Park Portrayed in Film and Television

By -
Image
Toronto has a rich history of being a go-to shooting location for many television and film production companies. Some notable films shot here over the years include Good Will Hunting (1997), Billy Madison (1998), American Psycho (2000), and X-Men (2000). Regent Park has also had its share of showcases in film. This article aims to review the general content of movie dramas and televisions shows shot in Regent and explore their relationship to the community. Clement Virgo is a director, producer, and writer from Montego Bay, Jamaica. He was born in 1966 and moved to the Regent Park area in Toronto in 1977. During this time Regent Park was generally populated by low-income families and as a hot spot for drugs. Virgo is most recently known for his roles in Greenleaf (2016-2018), The Book of Negroes (2015), and The Wire (2002) as Director and/or Producer. His first feature-length film, however, was Rude (1995), which was filmed almost entirely in the old Regent Park. “The film told
Read more

Meet Your Neighbourhood Police Officers – PC Mircea Biga and PC Farzad Ghotbi

By -
Image
Community-based policing is a proactive law enforcement strategy that focuses on building ties and working closely with a community’s members to create partnerships and plans for preventing and reducing crime. While community policing will look differently depending on the community it serves, a central feature is that the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis. Currently there are 17 community-based police programs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but what most people don’t know is that Toronto’s community policing started in Regent Park in May of 2017. We know this because the original officers involved in setting up the Regent Park community policing program continue to work here today. The officers are PC Mircea Biga, PC Farzad Ghotbi, and PC Edward Parks; the newest officer assigned to the Regent Park community is PC Nigel Thomas (who is replacing PC Melissa Huntley while she is on maternity leave). Symptomatic of the increasing diversity of
Read more

What Social Inclusion Means to Me

By -
I had moved into Regent Park only a few days before I saw the pink, fuchsia, strawberry, indigo, yellow, green, neck streamers and sparkling robes worn by children, parents, aunts, uncles, and elders as they marched passed my kitchen door. Soon, the nearby Athletic Grounds was blazing with colour. Although it was the first time I heard them, the intonations on the microphone were recognizable, even to me, as prayers. It was Eid, the concluding celebration after Ramadan. It was a beautiful sight. I am a White Jewish senior and I hunted for a stairless condo for years before I chose to live in Regent Park and then only because a relative did business with the new seniors’ building there. “Regent Park?” a friend exclaimed. “You are going to have ethnic problems.”  “Not I.  I come from a long line of fiery leftie activists.” I replied. Stage four and five of revitalizing this post-war subsidized development into a multi-income community was just beginning and I jumped in w
Read more