Toronto Employment and Labour Law Blog: Ten Critical Employment Issues Every Employer Must Face #2

Ten Critical Employment Issues Every Employer Must Face - #2 Independent Contractors Might Not Be So Independent After All - 

Some employers prefer to (mis)characterize workers as independent contractors. Independent contractors are not covered by the Employment Standards Act (the “ESA”) and thus not entitled to claim for vacation pay, overtime pay, pay-in-lieu of notice, severance pay or reasonable notice etc.  

One of the key recommendations of the recently released Changing Workplace Review by the Ontario Ministry of Labour noted:

“We identify the issue of employees who are misclassified – intentionally or unintentionally – as independent contractors not covered by the ESA as a significant one and recommend that the Ministry make misclassification a priority enforcement issue.”

The Ontario government plans to hire up to 175 more employment standards officers by 2020-2021.  By then, the Employment Standards program will be aiming to: 

resolve all claims filed within 90 days; and,

inspect 1 in 10 Ontario workplaces.

One area of focus for these inspectors will be on misclassified employees.

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