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LAST FALL, Ontario's Ministry of Labour sent inspectors to 103 workplaces - each of which had been found in violation of the Employment Standards Act (ESA) at least twice during the past three years. For the blitz, the ministry focused on sectors with "precarious employment," such as gyms, nail salons and maintenance and security systems.
The results weren't good: Most of the employers - 75 out of the 103 - were still in violation of the act. The most common moneyrelated infractions involved public holiday pay, overtime pay and vacation pay. The top violations not related to money involved hours of work, record-keeping and written agreements on vacation pay.
In all, the ministry recovered $125,267 in unpaid entitlements for workers, and it reported that all of the employers willingly complied with orders to pay. The blitz also resulted in 42 fines for employers, ranging from $250 to $300 each.
Why the violations?
The high number of ESA violations comes despite each employer's history of reprimands for rules violations, as well as advance notice of the blitz.
"Most of the time, I don't think employers are consciously setting out to violate the Employment Standards Act," said Daniel Chodos, partner at Whitten & Lubin Employment Lawyers.
Ignorance of the law can play a big role, however.
"Take overtime, for example," he said. "There's a misconception 1 hear over and over again, from both employers and employees, that salaried employees are not entitled to overtime... That couldn't be more wrong but it's a common belief'
In such cases, employers may feel mistakenly confident about their actions and have no idea they're breaking the law.
"So...