Kitchener, Ont. grocer pushing Ontario lawmakers to strengthen employee protections
Ontario lawmakers are looking to close the loopholes allowing some employers to take advantage of their workers.
Over the next two weeks they’ll propose amendments to Bill 190, also known as Working for Workers Five Act, to provide greater protections for employees.
One example being used is a Kitchener grocer with an extensive track record of not paying its employees and vendors.
“Over the last five years we have been seeing waves of workers come to us about one particular employer, a grocery store in the region called Dutchies Fresh Market,” said Joanna Mullen, a lawyer with Waterloo Region Community Legal Services.
The Dutchies story was shocking to many of those on the committee.
“I was absolutely blown away, realizing that it was more than a decade this has been happening,” stated Jamie West, the Sudbury MPP and NDP Labour critic.
West and others on the committee said it shows the laws currently in place are not strong enough.
“You can't get away with wage theft for more than a decade and have the Ministry of Labor kind of put its hands in its pockets and say, ‘shucks, jeez, what can we do?’” said West.
Bill 190 currently proposes increasing the maximum fine for bad actors from $50,000 to $100,000.
West pointed out in the committee meeting that the maximum fine is rarely issued, so increasing the fine is not enough.
“Dutchies is a horrible example of this, there are horrible examples all across the province,” he said. “There's a lot of really great employers, but we have to hold the bad ones to account.”
According to Mullen, the province should have the ability to shutdown businesses with repeat offenses.
“The ministry should have more powers to strip employers of the licenses that they need to operate a business, whether it's their business license, a liquor license, even a driver's license,” Mullen explained. “They need to have some ability to actually go into these companies and say: ‘You can't do this anymore.’”
Lawmakers have another two weeks to propose amendments to the current legislation and West promised he’d support a law allowing the province to revoke a business’s license.
“The Minister of Labour really should be writing legislation to give him the power to prevent this from happening,” he said.
CTV News reached out to David Piccini, the Minister of Labour, but did not hear back by our deadline.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than half of human trafficking incidents in Canada remain unsolved
More than half of human trafficking incidents remained unsolved in Canada by police as the number of incidents increased over the past decade, according to new data released Friday.
Human remains found in Markham, Ont. in 1980 belonged to prison escapee: police
More than 44 years after human remains were found in a rural area of Markham, Ont., police are revealing that the deceased was an inmate who had escaped prison just a month before his body was found.
WATCH 'It's mind-boggling': Drought reveals U.S. town submerged in the 1940s
Hundreds of people are flocking to see a rare site in Pennsylvania: remnants of a historic town that is usually underwater.
Manitoba RCMP identify infant human remains, asking public for help with investigation
Manitoba RCMP are looking for more information after the remains of an infant were identified.
Those typing monkeys will never produce Shakespeare's works, mathematicians say
Talented though they may be, monkeys will never type out the complete works of William Shakespeare, or even a short book, a new study suggests.
Auto theft probe leads to arrest of 59 suspects, recovery of more than 300 stolen vehicles: Toronto police
Toronto police say 59 suspects are facing a total of 300 charges in connection with an auto theft and re-vinning probe.
'I couldn't stay home': Canadian with no prior military training joins Ukrainian forces
In the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Adam Oake, a Canadian with no prior military training, sold all of his Toronto Maple Leafs memorabilia to buy a plane ticket.
Children's doctors reporting unusual increase in walking pneumonia cases in Canada
Children's hospitals across the country are seeing an unusual increase in the number of serious and more complicated cases of walking pneumonia affecting much younger patients, according to medical experts.
Video falsely depicting voter fraud in Georgia linked to 'Russian influence actors,' U.S. officials say
A video that purports to show election fraud in Georgia by a man who claims to be from Haiti is fake and the work of "Russian influence actors," U.S. intelligence officials said Friday.