Province relies on complaint-driven regime; unions demand broader compliance ‘blitzes’
Alberta is following the trend of several other provinces by tweaking its Employment Standards Code (ESC) enforcement.
But in a province with an acute labour shortage and an influx of foreign and out-of-province workers, the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) says the improvements don’t go far enough.
In addition to hiring six new enforcement officers, Alberta has also created an employment standards “toolkit” for employers, hired third-party auditors for complex investigations and created an online complaint form.
Minister of employment and immigration, Thomas Lukaszuk, says the online system has demonstrated the need for both improved enforcement and a better mechanism for handling complaints.
“We had to make sure employees have the ability to file a complaint without coming into an office because people in Alberta are working all kinds of hours,” he says, adding the volume of complaints has increased substantially since opening the online system. About 70 per cent of complaints are now received through the website.
The AFL supports the new complaints system, but is concerned that the process is still complaints-driven. Secretary-Treasurer Nancy Furlong says the federation’s own research on temporary foreign workers found almost three-quarters of their employers had violated employment standards. Most breaches involved hours of pay and not being paid for overtime.
“They think they can’t complain — if I do that I’ll be fired,” she says, adding the system is too direct. “You get a complaint and you solve it. If the employer is having trouble paying you, (enforcement) will say, well they can pay you for 20 hours instead of 40. That doesn’t solve the problem.”
From April 2010 to March 2011, the employment standards branch received about 6,400 complaints. In all, employees were owed about $5 million.
Lukaszuk says only about five per cent of employers are responsible for those violations, so it’s unrealistic for the system to be anything but complaints driven.
“We can’t expect to have accountants going in and auditing payroll without grounds to believe there’s a problem,” he says, noting that employment standards in other provinces are also complaints-driven.
There are repeat offenders but Lukaszuk says the most common breaches are made by employers without a sophisticated method of calculating payroll.
“Often they’re small and medium-sized businesses that don’t have a standard system,” he says. “They keep records in unorthodox ways and when there are disputes with employees we usually need to audit the entire payroll.”
But Lukaszuk says ignorance is no excuse and that’s why the province has increased its complement of enforcement officers and turned to third-party auditors. Outside auditors will be called in for complaints where there appears to be a systemic issue. Employers in violation will be expected to pay for that audit.
The AFL says third-party auditors lack “real power” and question the need for outside help.
Furlong says the system would be better improved through a more proactive approach. She suggests creating an online questionnaire for employers that would give them feedback on their compliance levels. She also wants the province to compile a list of the biggest offenders, a list that could be used to predict future behaviour and become a launch point for a compliance “blitz.” Furlong would also like to see their names posted online as is done with those who violate workplace safety.
The federation would also like to see an “employee rights” toolkit similar to the plain language manual now available to Alberta employers. In Ontario, for example, the province has created a WorkSafeOntario website that explains to young and new workers how to identify mistreatment and, in Saskatchewan, the provincial federation of labour has posted a quiz for employees to help them understand their rights.
