What’s changing
It will be mandatory for employers to pay:
- casual, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees, who are doing substantially the same work as full-time/permanent employees, the same rate of pay as full-time/permanent employees
- temporary help agency employees (also known as assignment employees), who are doing substantially the same work as employees of the client, the same rate of pay as employees of the client
Casual, part-time, temporary and seasonal employees will be allowed to ask their employer to review their rate of pay if they believe they’re not receiving the same rate of pay as full-time/permanent employees who perform substantially the same work.
Temporary help agency employees will also be allowed to ask their employer to review their rate of pay if they believe they’re not receiving the same rate of pay as employees of the client who perform substantially the same work.
The employer will have to respond by either adjusting the employee’s pay or giving the employee a written explanation.
Exceptions
Employers will be exempt from the new equal pay for equal work rules for part-time, temporary, casual and seasonal employees, if the wage difference is based on:
- a seniority or merit system
- systems that measure earnings by quantity or quality of production
- other factors (sex and employment status will not qualify as an exception)
Temporary help agencies will be exempt from the new equal pay for equal work rules for temporary help agency assignment employees if the difference in the rate in pay is based on something other than sex, employment status or assignment employee status.
Comes into effect
This will come into effect on April 1, 2018.
Temporary help agencies
What’s changing
Temporary help agencies will be required to give their employees at least one week’s written notice or pay in lieu of notice, if an assignment, originally estimated to last three months or longer, ends early.
If the temporary help agency gives less than one week’s notice, they must pay the wages the employee would have been entitled to receive had one week’s notice been given.
The temporary help agency will not have to give notice or pay in lieu if it offered the employee another assignment that was reasonable and lasted at least one week.
Exceptions
Agencies will not have to provide notice or pay in lieu of notice if there is:
- wilful misconduct by the assignment employee
- an unforeseeable event that makes it impossible to perform the assignment
- or the assignment is terminated because of a strike or lock-out at the location of the assignment
Comes into effect
This will come into effect on January 1, 2018.