Alberta needs to follow suit: MLA
When one of Ravi Malhotra’s students asked him about the Manitoba law that permits people with disabilities to be paid less than minimum wage, the University of Ottawa professor thought she was kidding.
“You know, students often come up to professors and say things that are just misunderstandings of statements of law. They misunderstand the statute; they read it wrong,” he says. “But she was insistent about this.”
In his years of teaching labour law and human rights, Malhotra had never heard of such a law, but when he researched it, there it was.
Introduced in 1965, permits allowing for “any person who is disabled” to be paid less than minimum wage were issued informally by Manitoba’s Employment Standards Branch and the Department of Family services. In 1992, after increased concern from the disabled community, more formal guidelines outlining who a permit could be issued to were introduced.
In December 2012, Manitoba, which currently has a minimum wage of $10.25, introduced legislation to repeal the law.
“It’s so bizarre” Malhotra says. “Then I found out that there were multiple provinces that had this.”
Alberta and Saskatchewan have similar legislation.
Kent Hehr is a provincial liberal MLA in the Calgary-Buffalo riding in Alberta. He is also a quadriplegic.
While he is encouraged with Manitoba’s progress, Alberta needs to update its laws, he says.
“It’s from... a bygone era, and legislatures all across this country and, in fact, all across the world should get with the times and understand that people with disabilities contribute,” Hehr says.
Hehr has plans to write Alberta Premier Alison Redford about the law and raise the issue in question period, he says.
Former Alberta Minister of Employment and Immigration Hector Goudreau has stated that no permits were granted or renewed from 2006 to 2009, Hehr says.
Manitoba Family Services and Labour Minister Jennifer Howard has said no permits have been issued since 2009.
“Nevertheless, they should simply be striking it from the books. They should be eliminating this as a provision that people cannot apply for,” Hehr says. “When it’s on the books, then employers and ministers can get themselves caught up in to the thinking that, ‘Well, we’re really doing people with disabilities a favour.’”
One of the biggest problems with the legislation in Manitoba is that it is too overarching, Malhotra says.
“It could be me,” he says. “I use crutches. It could be anybody who’s blind, deaf, which doesn’t really make sense in public policy terms.”
Malhotra acknowledges the law is not widely used. In fact, Howard says only 16 people currently work under the provision.
“I suspect it’s only been used in recent years in the intellectual disability sector,” Malhotra says.
Malhotra equates the issue to the common belief that people with intellectual abilities aren’t aware when they are being teased.
“I strongly suspect that people with intellectual disabilities are aware that they’re being paid below the minimum wage,” he says. “It’s a degrading thing.”
Winnipeg labour and employment lawyer Donna Seale shares the same view as Malhotra, but worries what doing away with the law will mean for employment for people with disabilities in the province.
“What is the plan that you’re now going to put in place to encourage and promote the employment of persons with disabilities at minimum wage rates at the minimum?” Seales says. “There was nothing in the announcement that suggested to me that we now have a plan, this is what we’re going to go forward with.”
Seales’ investment in the issue is both professional and personal. Her sister has a disability.
“There were employers over the course of her years that have taken advantage of her… because it was free labour,” she says. “What are we going to do to get away from that?”
She worries opposition to the law is mostly thinking of individuals with physical disabilities.
“We’re looking at issues of mental health-related disability and intellectual disability, things that I think society generally doesn’t understand very well — and employers fall within that,” she says. “What are we going to do to encourage the opening of the doors and employment opportunities to that group of people?”
Seale wonders how Manitoba will rectify years of injustice.
“What are you going to do in recognition of the fact that was a discriminatory provision and now move us forward?” she says.
Workers with disabilities an asset
In July 2012, a panel was appointed by the federal government to consult with private-sector employees, organizations and individuals on the labour market participation of people with disabilities.
The panel produced Rethinking Disability in the Private Sector, a report about its consultations with more than 70 organizations and the solutions they came up with for more inclusive workplaces.
“Quite frankly, the employment level for people with disabilities is worse than at pre-depression levels,” says Ken Freeden, a member of the panel and a lawyer with Toronto-based law firm Deloitte and Touche. “If you combine that with the fact that everybody's talking about a talent shortage, then the question is, so why aren't private sectors tapping in to this talent pool?”
Progressive organizations should be viewing disabled workers as an asset to their company because they bring something to the table the general population can’t, says Freeden.
“Anybody that knows anything about people with disabilities understands one thing: these people have had challenges and barriers thrown in their way their entire lives,” he says. “If companies are interested in innovation, these people are more innovative by nature.”
If a disabled worker requires accommodation — and Freeden says that’s often not the case — the company shouldn’t look at it as a costly measure for just one individual.
“As the workforce ages, a lot of the accommodations that are put in place for people with disabilities actually apply to everybody,” he says. “The best employers assume everybody has a disability. They make the assumption that everybody will require some form of accommodation, it's just a question of what.”
Employees with disabilities are often very loyal, dedicated, hard working people, Freeden says,
“They provide long service, dedicated employment to many employers. Where's the down side to that?” he says. “Why do you need to subsidize an employee like that?”
Exploring whether or not they should be paid minimum wage is looking at the wrong spectrum of the equation.
“The question is why shouldn't they be paid the same as other people doing the same job,” he says
Malhotra echoes Freeden’s sentiments.
"Nobody's asking them to pay the salaries of doctors. We're asking them to pay minimum wage," Malhotra says. "This is not exactly a radical demand."
