With online reporting meaning more claims, Alberta and Ontario had to eliminate the issues in the system
Last year there was a big backlog of employment standards claims in the province of Ontario’s queue.
Online claim reporting, introduced in 2006, meant the number of complaints that hadn’t been dealt with was rising steadily.
In August 2010, there were 15,000 active claims, according to the Ministry.
“We needed to address that,” said Steve Grier, director of the employment standards branch at Ontario’s Ministry of Labour.
So the province implemented measures which have a goal of eliminating the backlog by August 2012. As part of those measures, 7,200 of the 15,000 claims were transferred to a special task force.
Over several years, the government had a substantial increase in the number of claims that were received in the program.
The 24-7 online filing system, which invited people to file claims whenever it was convenient to them, was good for service, said Grier.
But sometimes the quality of the online claims received was poor, with complaints that lacked information, causing additional work for the department, he said.
“Sometimes we would get claims coming in with scant information that would come into the system and we’d spend hours, days and sometimes weeks tracking people down to try and determine what they were claiming,” he said.
The ministry decided to do some work on the front end of the claims process, to ensure employees accessing the website had the right information when they went online to file, said Grier.
The province put a self-help kit online to encourage employees to speak to their employers or former employers to attempt to resolve issues before filing claims.
The kit included a template letter that could be used to start the conversation.
To further eliminate the backlog, the department implemented a claim verification process.
Previously, when a claim came into the system, it would automatically get a file number and become part of the workload. Now there is a step in place to ensure at least minimal information is included in the claim before it is assigned a number and investigated.
If a claim comes in lacking substantial information there are staff members dedicated to contacting the claimant and giving them reasonable time to get pertinent information to the ministry. If the information is received then the claim is processed. If not, the claim is not accepted.
“Of course the vast majority are accepted but… as an investigative body, you need at least basic information,” he said.
The province also started an education outreach program to pre-empt employment standards issues. There are a number of self-help tools on the website, including a severance tool, a termination tool and public holiday calculator.
“Calculating public holidays can be quite challenging for employers and employees,” he said, adding the calculator has been really popular with small business in the province.
The ministry also released an employer workbook launched in September 2010. The book is a “comprehensive how to for employer on how to comply with the standards act,” said Grier.
The province also created an employee task force, which had workers assigned to older files, so the main program could focus on claims as they are received. This resulted in a dramatic reduction in wait times because regular staff is working on fresh files, he said.
The task force is on its way to way to eliminating the backlog, he said.
Since the changes were implemented the backlog has been reduced by more than two-thirds and the wait time for early resolution — when claims are assigned to an officer — has dropped from 7.1 months to about three days, according to the ministry.
Now the government is looking to stop claims from coming in by being more proactive, he said.
“Now that we’ve handled the backlog and we’re turning these claims around in a very timely fashion, we are going to start moving our resources away from the reactive work and increasing the number of officers we have doing proactive inspections,” he said.
More than 30 of the department’s officers are now doing inspections in the field, compared to a year ago when there were less than one-half that many.
The process hasn’t been as healthy as it is now in more than 20 years, said Grier.
Alberta looks at employment standards
Alberta has taken on issues with employment standards in a similar way.
“Employment Standards is a piece of legislation that is a living piece... there always has to be responses to trends,” said Thomas Lukaszuk, former Alberta minister of employment and immigration.
Employment standards officers in the field make reports. The minister then looks at those reports and if there are gaps or areas that need to be tightened up relevant to enforcement or education, the government responds to those needs, said Lukaszuk.
Similar to the situation in Ontario, Alberta saw an increase in employment standards complaints when the process went online because of easy of use, he said.
“People are more likely to report if it’s accessible to them 24-7 when they happen to be on a bus going home from work or perhaps at home or during lunch hour than actually having to sit down and write a letter or call our office during regular business office hours,” he said.
“Our younger workers are much more likely to utilize this type of technology instead of picking up a phone and calling.”
The province has made a commitment to hire more employment standards offers. The hiring process for those officers is still open, he said.
Alberta has also introduced an employment toolkit, because the province found many cases of employment standards violations where employers were genuinely misinformed, he said.
“So for those who choose to educate themselves this was very well received, for those who choose not to, there are no more excuses to say I don’t know, I didn’t understand,” he said, adding the guide is incredibly accessible and very plainly written so anyone can understand obligations.
The revamp of the employment standards process was done for two reasons, said Lukaszuk.
First, it was the right thing to do, he said.
But having good employment standards is also essential to attract a strong workforce to the province, he said.
“We know if we want to attract and retain the best workers available not only within Alberta or Canada, even internationally, we have to be known as a place that is safe and fair.”
Online claim reporting, introduced in 2006, meant the number of complaints that hadn’t been dealt with was rising steadily.
In August 2010, there were 15,000 active claims, according to the Ministry.
“We needed to address that,” said Steve Grier, director of the employment standards branch at Ontario’s Ministry of Labour.
So the province implemented measures which have a goal of eliminating the backlog by August 2012. As part of those measures, 7,200 of the 15,000 claims were transferred to a special task force.
Over several years, the government had a substantial increase in the number of claims that were received in the program.
The 24-7 online filing system, which invited people to file claims whenever it was convenient to them, was good for service, said Grier.
But sometimes the quality of the online claims received was poor, with complaints that lacked information, causing additional work for the department, he said.
“Sometimes we would get claims coming in with scant information that would come into the system and we’d spend hours, days and sometimes weeks tracking people down to try and determine what they were claiming,” he said.
The ministry decided to do some work on the front end of the claims process, to ensure employees accessing the website had the right information when they went online to file, said Grier.
The province put a self-help kit online to encourage employees to speak to their employers or former employers to attempt to resolve issues before filing claims.
The kit included a template letter that could be used to start the conversation.
To further eliminate the backlog, the department implemented a claim verification process.
Previously, when a claim came into the system, it would automatically get a file number and become part of the workload. Now there is a step in place to ensure at least minimal information is included in the claim before it is assigned a number and investigated.
If a claim comes in lacking substantial information there are staff members dedicated to contacting the claimant and giving them reasonable time to get pertinent information to the ministry. If the information is received then the claim is processed. If not, the claim is not accepted.
“Of course the vast majority are accepted but… as an investigative body, you need at least basic information,” he said.
The province also started an education outreach program to pre-empt employment standards issues. There are a number of self-help tools on the website, including a severance tool, a termination tool and public holiday calculator.
“Calculating public holidays can be quite challenging for employers and employees,” he said, adding the calculator has been really popular with small business in the province.
The ministry also released an employer workbook launched in September 2010. The book is a “comprehensive how to for employer on how to comply with the standards act,” said Grier.
The province also created an employee task force, which had workers assigned to older files, so the main program could focus on claims as they are received. This resulted in a dramatic reduction in wait times because regular staff is working on fresh files, he said.
The task force is on its way to way to eliminating the backlog, he said.
Since the changes were implemented the backlog has been reduced by more than two-thirds and the wait time for early resolution — when claims are assigned to an officer — has dropped from 7.1 months to about three days, according to the ministry.
Now the government is looking to stop claims from coming in by being more proactive, he said.
“Now that we’ve handled the backlog and we’re turning these claims around in a very timely fashion, we are going to start moving our resources away from the reactive work and increasing the number of officers we have doing proactive inspections,” he said.
More than 30 of the department’s officers are now doing inspections in the field, compared to a year ago when there were less than one-half that many.
The process hasn’t been as healthy as it is now in more than 20 years, said Grier.
Alberta looks at employment standards
Alberta has taken on issues with employment standards in a similar way.
“Employment Standards is a piece of legislation that is a living piece... there always has to be responses to trends,” said Thomas Lukaszuk, former Alberta minister of employment and immigration.
Employment standards officers in the field make reports. The minister then looks at those reports and if there are gaps or areas that need to be tightened up relevant to enforcement or education, the government responds to those needs, said Lukaszuk.
Similar to the situation in Ontario, Alberta saw an increase in employment standards complaints when the process went online because of easy of use, he said.
“People are more likely to report if it’s accessible to them 24-7 when they happen to be on a bus going home from work or perhaps at home or during lunch hour than actually having to sit down and write a letter or call our office during regular business office hours,” he said.
“Our younger workers are much more likely to utilize this type of technology instead of picking up a phone and calling.”
The province has made a commitment to hire more employment standards offers. The hiring process for those officers is still open, he said.
Alberta has also introduced an employment toolkit, because the province found many cases of employment standards violations where employers were genuinely misinformed, he said.
“So for those who choose to educate themselves this was very well received, for those who choose not to, there are no more excuses to say I don’t know, I didn’t understand,” he said, adding the guide is incredibly accessible and very plainly written so anyone can understand obligations.
The revamp of the employment standards process was done for two reasons, said Lukaszuk.
First, it was the right thing to do, he said.
But having good employment standards is also essential to attract a strong workforce to the province, he said.
“We know if we want to attract and retain the best workers available not only within Alberta or Canada, even internationally, we have to be known as a place that is safe and fair.”
