CCPA-BC submission to Ministry of Labour consultation on the Employment Standards Act

The key enforcement bodies for provincial workplace rights, the Employment Standards Branch of the Ministry of Labour and the Labour Relations Board have been underfunded to a point where they cannot adequately administer and enforce the law.13 This has tilted the playing field too far in favour of the employer and severely undermined access to justice for vulnerable workers. [...] Page 9 | Response to the BC Ministry of Labour Consultation Paper on the Employment Standards Act _____________________________________________________________________________________ We are encouraged to see that the Ministry of Labour is contemplating a transformation of the Employment Standards Branch because a significant overhaul of the current enforcement is needed to meaningfully protect th. [...] We encourage the Province to adopt a definition that reflects the diversity of families in BC today, in particular the types of close-knit family-like relationships common in the LGBTQ2S community, the strong mutual support networks in migrant worker communities, traditional Indigenous kinship networks and the types of family relationships formed in the foster care system. [...] For those violations, the current limitation period is six months from the date of the contravention not from the end of employment, and many workers affected, particularly those who are employed Page 14 | Response to the BC Ministry of Labour Consultation Paper on the Employment Standards Act _____________________________________________________________________________________ under the temporary. [...] One of the big challenges of adapting the ESA for the 21st century is that new technologies are disrupting the traditional employer-employee relationship and, as a result, the old definitions of employer and employee in the Act do not address the complexity of the current labour market reality.