The following list characterizes each recommendation as either a short, medium or long term initiative. Short term initiatives have the lowest resource implications or are the least complex to implement or both, while those characterized as long term have the most significant resource implications or have a high degree of implementation complexity or both.

SHORT TERM

2. The Ontario government codify within the ESA a broad policy statement highlighting its commitment to protecting basic minimum employment rights, supporting compliance and fostering public, employer and employee awareness and education.

3. The Ontario government convene the minimum wage Committee, or similar body, to review minimum wage issues balancing the needs of business and employees.

7. The Ministry of Labour:
a) launch a public awareness campaign on Employment Standards Act rights and responsibilities;
b) to support workers’ and employers’ needs for additional information about the ESA, continue to offer and to expand capacity for providing outreach through ESA informational/educational sessions including but not limited to those in high risk sectors and groups; and
c) develop partnerships with employer, employee and community organizations to enhance worker and employer knowledge of ESA rights and responsibilities.

8. The Ontario government amend the ESA to require employers to provide the ESA poster in handout format to all new employees in English and, to the extent possible, in the language of the employee.

9. a) The Ontario government amend the ESA to require employers to provide all employees with written notice of their employment status and terms of their employment contract; and
b) the Ministry of Labour develop standard forms to support employers in this task.

10. The Ministry of Labour place a greater emphasis on ESA proactive enforcement processes while continuing to use a range of strategies including voluntary compliance, proactive inspections and responses to individual complaints.

11. The Ministry of Labour:
a) engage in data collection and evaluation to determine the impact of the policy requiring employees to approach employers prior to initiating an ESA claim; and
b) consider reversal of policy if evaluation reveals negative impacts such as declines in claims attributable to the policy changes.

12. The Ministry of Labour improve communication about the vulnerable worker exemptions to approaching employers at the outset of an ESA claim.

15. The Ministry of Labour:
a) develop an accessible and well communicated mechanism – such as a hotline – for ESOs to receive third-party and/or anonymous complaints which could trigger proactive inspections; and
b) develop corresponding policy criteria to ensure that unfounded complaints do not trigger unwarranted inspections.

17. The Ontario government amend the ESA to permit orders requiring employers found in violation of the ESA to cover the costs of investigations and inspections, in appropriate cases.

18. The Ministry of Labour strengthen ESO policy direction supported by education to direct ESOs to select deterrent sanctions for appropriate cases, most particularly repeat violators and those who wilfully fail to comply with payment orders.

20. The Ministry of Labour:
a) develop processes of reaching out to and focusing on the top echelon of industry to address ESA noncompliance where workers are affiliated with the company, particularly those subcontracted to small enterprises and temporary agency workers; and
b) identify and provide recognition and incentives for companies that are leaders in extending employment standards compliance and higher than minimum standards to external workers particularly those subcontracted to small enterprises and temporary agency workers.

24. Unions and community groups continue to develop and expand innovative services to support migrant workers to assert their legal rights.

25. The Ontario government amend the AEPA by explicitly including the elements of bargaining in good faith protected by section 2(d) of the Charter as identified by the Supreme Court of Canada in Health Services and affirmed in Fraser.

26. The Ministry of Labour convene an Innovative Solutions for Precarious Work Advisory Council of representatives of relevant ministries, experts, and labour and employer organizations to obtain advice and to develop initiatives for improved and expedited ESA compliance and enforcement with a view to recommending best practices for responding to the existing and emerging needs of vulnerable employees/precarious work in the changing workplace.

27. The Ontario government extend the Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act to all temporary migrant workers in Ontario.

28. a) The Ontario government negotiate an information-sharing agreement with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada to permit information to flow between Ontario and the federal government for the purpose of increasing protections for temporary foreign workers by:
i) strengthening federal-provincial oversight over temporary foreign worker contracts;
ii) increasing enforcement of temporary migrant workers’ rights under provincial legislation; and
iii) imposing consequences upon employers who violate provincial legislation or breach contractual agreements with temporary foreign workers.
b) The Ontario government initiate consultations with the federal government to bring about greater coordination of policies affecting worker protection for low skilled temporary foreign workers.

31. a) The Ontario government amend the ESA to require employers and contractors to provide all workers, including independent contractors, with written notice of their work or employment status and terms of their employment or work contract (including remuneration, hours, and other terms); and
b) The Ministry of Labour develop standard forms to support employers and contractors in this task.

32. OHSA enforcement activity include proactive inspections to ensure joint health and safety committees and representatives are in place where required and are effectively operational.

33. The Ontario government ensure that stakeholder discussions between industry and government regarding health and safety include workers or their representatives.

35. The Ontario Labour Relations Board, the Ministry of Labour and the Office of the Worker Adviser ensure that systems are in place to ensure to the extent possible section 50 reprisal complaints for temporary foreign workers are heard at the OLRB prior to repatriation.

36. The Ontario government ensure the section 21 Vulnerable Workers Committee, addresses the following:
a) prioritizing health and safety training, both basic and hazard specific, for migrant workers and their supervisors;
b) determining ways to provide access to basic rights training and hazard specific training to migrant workers either prior to arrival in Canada through consulates or immediately upon arrival; and
c) identifying sectors where there are concentrations of vulnerable workers so that proactive enforcement activities are directed at these sectors.

MEDIUM TERM

1. The Ontario government:
a) in consultation with labour and owner/management stakeholders, stakeholders, update, review and streamline the exemptions within the ESA and related regulations including a review of existing occupational specific exemptions, with the objective of ensuring any exemptions are justified on current public policy and industry considerations; and
b) ensure that the review develop and use principles that aim to promote a broadly available minimum floor of basic workers’ rights, including that justifications for exemptions be balanced against the need to reduce precarious work and provide basic minimum standards to a broader sector of the working population.

4. The Ontario government, taking into account the complexities of the issue, consider what amendments could be made to the ESA to ensure part-time workers are paid at proportionately the same rate as full-time workers in equivalent positions where there is no justification for the difference based on skill, experience or job description.

6. The Ontario government review personal emergency leave provisions in the ESA to ensure each provision is justified on current public policy grounds and to determine ways to extend the benefit to workers in workplaces with fewer than 50 employees (including part-time, casual and temporary employees of these small enterprises.)

14. The Ontario government:
a) amend the ESA to provide for a discretionary tim