The Supreme Court of Canada cemented legal protection for employees from harsh and punitive arbitration clauses they may have been forced to sign as a condition of employment. Read how Uber workers in Ontario made this possible.
If you primarily work on contract, then Bram Lecker discusses how Ontario’s employment laws protect you. Dependent contractors are now recognized as having the same rights under the law as employees.
Your Classification As Independent Contractor or Employee Matters. It Could Be Making Your Employer Richer and You Poorer By Thousands Of Dollars, As Pizza Delivery Man, Juan Jose Lira Cervantes, Discovered.
Bill 148 requires employers to classify workers as employees, dependent contractors or independent contractors. Provincial laws protect dependent contractors just like employees. However, the Federal Income Tax Act does not yet recognize dependent contractor status. What should you do if the CRA wrongfully assesses you as an independent contractor when you are a dependent contractor?
Ontario’s employment laws have been updated to uphold the rights of a workforce increasingly employed in the “gig economy”, with contract, part-time and temporary work. Today, employers must be clear about the status of their temps. As Dependent Contractors, they are not inferior to employees. Misclassifying them as “independent contractors” is unlawful.
Equal Pay for Equal Work becomes law in April 2018. Part-time workers, temps and seasonal employees can now expect the same wages as their full-time counterparts if they perform virtually the same job. A part-time job status is not inferior and entitles you to equal benefits, pro-rated, that full-time employees receive. And yes, that includes notice and severance pay when you are dismissed without cause.
Dependent Contractors – New Class of Workers Recognized in Ontario. | $125,000: The highest settlement to a contractor for a wrongful dismissal lawsuit. Lecker & Associates of Toronto represented Marilyn and Lawrence Keenan in a ground breaking labour law case. It resulted in the highest ever settlement for wrongfully dismissed contractors in Ontario.
If you work as a commission sales agents, what happens when your company ends their relationship with you? Do you have any say when they unilaterally change the deal, such as reducing commission rates, shrinking your territory or turning your cherished customers into “house accounts”? Are you entitled to notice and severance pay, just like an employee? In all likelihood, your company would argue that you clearly are your own boss, that they owe you nothing! Legally, this is far from the truth.
Class Action Wrongful Dismissal Lawsuit Filed by Contract Workers in Ontario. | Seven thousand contract workers filed a class action wrongful dismissal lawsuit against utilities retailer, Just Energy. They claim that this business unjustly enriched itself by classifying them as independent contractors when they were actually employees.
This is the highest ever compensation award for contract workers in Canada and we hope the message is loud and clear. Ontario’s top court has made the ground rules crystal clear. Employers can no longer give the self serving title of “independent contractor” to vulnerable workers who are not that independent. – Bram Lecker Feb 2016