Employees can’t pay for gas thefts: P.E.I.

With gas prices reaching all time highs in some provinces last week, Prince Edward Island had a message for employers: Don’t try to make your employees pay for gas and dash losses.

Labour officials in P.E.I said they were concerned after hearing media reports that some gasoline retailers may have been garnishing employee pay to make up for losses from customers who drive off without paying for gas.

Legislation was introduced in the province in 2010 to prevent employees from seeing losses on their paycheques if a customer failed to pay for a product or service in situations such as gas and dashes or dine and dashes.

“The legislation was amended and the language is very clear: That where a product or a service is not paid for, that an employee shall not have that amount deducted from their wage,” said Faye Martin, who oversees the Labour and Industrial Relations section for the Department of Environment, Labour and Justice in the province.

Having employees bare some of the cost of the loss is illegal even if an employee agrees to take the deduction, which media reports suggest was happening at one retailer.

“With the increased cost of gasoline especially, I think it’s anticipated we’ll see even more of the gas and dash problem emerge because of the economic pressures on people to pay for gas,” said Martin.

It’s fair to say the 2010 change was done for safety reasons, not just as an employment standards measure, said Martin.

“We don’t want our employees feeling like they’re in a position where they have to take extraordinary measures to stop a motorist from leaving without paying for gas that they’ve put in their car or their vehicle,” she said. “I mean I don’t think the same hazard would exist in a restaurant, for example, but certainly (in a) situation where gas is being taken you’ve got danger in a number of different ways there and pretty extensive danger because of the possibility of the loss of life... as a result of a motor vehicle accident.”

Gas pre-payment

British Columbia, where gas prices were more than $1.40 per litre on April 5, has seen improvement on the number of gas and dash incidents since introduced a law requiring pre-payment of gasoline.

“Grant’s law” has been effect since Feb. 1, 2008. It was initiated after death of Grant DePatie, a young worker who was killed attempting prevent a gas and dash robbery while working alone at night in Maple Ridge, B.C.

The incident took place on March 8, 2005. DePatie was trying to stop a driver who took off without paying for $12.30 in gas.

B.C. is the only province to have mandatory pre-payment provisions.

Requiring drivers to pay out before they fill up has yielded good results for workplace safety over the past four years.

“We have been told by the Vancouver police that the change in legislation has virtually eliminated gas and dashes in their jurisdiction,” said Megan Johnston, a spokeswoman for WorkSafeBC.

The 2008 change in B.C. legislation which mandated the pre-payment of gasoline also included changes to laws regarding workers at late night retail premises.

The legislation required employers to ensure an employee working alone or in isolation in a retail premise at night was physically separated from the public by a locked door or barrier that prevents contact with or access to the worker or have more than one employee working.

B.C. has since made amendments to the law, which come into effect on April 15, to include a third option for employers.

In the third option employers must implement a safety plan that includes:

•a time lock safe on the premises that cannot be opened during late night hours

•cash and lottery tickets that are not reasonably required in order to operate during late night hours are stored in the time lock safe

•good visibility into and out of the premises

•limited access to the inside of the premises

•the premises must be monitored by video surveillance

•there must be signs on the premises indicating that the safe is a time lock safe that cannot be opened during late night hours, there is a limited amount of accessible cash and lottery tickets on the premises, and the premises are monitored by video surveillance

With the new option, workers have to be 19 or older and are to be provided with personal emergency transmitters which must be monitored by the employer, a security company or other person designated by the employer.

“The third option addresses implementation issues and challenges with the existing regulation,” according to WorkSafeBC. “The implementation issues were confirmed in three pilot projects and by an independent evaluation. The conclusions were that options one and two in the current regulatory requirement — hiring additional workers or erecting a barrier — are not practicable for all late night retailers.”

The changes have been slammed by the province’s labour federation, which said the amendments water down Grant’s law.

“It is extremely disappointing to see WorkSafeBC sacrifice evidence-based safety regulations after a lobby based only on the profit motive of late night employers,” said Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour. “This is a huge setback for some of the most vulnerable and lowest-paid workers in the province.”

Dashing in Ontario