[mobglob-discuss] Tieleman on Liberal Child Labour May 23-30-02

Sat May 25 07:31:57 PDT 2002

Subscribers,  In case you didn't pick up a Georgia straight this week,
here's Tieleman's column...One for you clippings file.   -tc
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  ----- Forwarded message: -----From: "West Star" <weststar at telus.net>
To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:@carbon1.Douglas.bc.ca;>
Subject: Tieleman on Liberal Child Labour May 23-30-02
Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 00:07:08 -0700

Greetings all,

For Lower Mainland residents, don't miss Saturday's big anti-government
rally at noon, Sunset Beach.

For more info see www.campaignbc.ca

Here's this week's Georgia Straight column on the Liberal government's
changes to Employment Standards, including promoting the use of child
labour -- I'm not joking.

Regards,

Bill Tieleman
West Star Communications
Tel 604-844-7827
NEW ADDRESS effective February 1, 2002
Suite 207 - 1600 West 6th Avenue
Vancouver, BC  V6J 1R3

NEW Fax 604-844-7828
Website: www.weststarcommunications.com

Read the Georgia Straight & watch CBC TV
Canada Now Thursdays for political commentary
by Bill Tieleman

Bill Tieleman's Political Connections column in the Georgia Straight

for May 23-30, 2002

Business Is Reborn Without Labour

And I'll be...
Takin' care of business every day
Takin' care of business every way
I've been taking care of business, it's all mine
Takin' care of business and working overtime

- Bachman Turner Overdrive "Takin' Care of Business", 1973

With Premier Gordon Campbell taking care of business, you'll be working
overtime, all right, but you probably won't get paid for it anymore.

And if you think the use of child labour only happens in Third World
sweatshops, think again - in the "New Era of Prosperity", B.C. kids are
back on the job.

Those are just a few of the more radical changes contained in 66
amendments to the Employment Standards Act the B.C. Liberals introduced
May 13 and intend to pass into law by May 30.

There are also serious changes being made at the same time to the
Workers' Compensation Board and to the Labour Relations Code - all to
the benefit of employers and the detriment of workers.  The WCB changes
will cut the payments made to injured workers in order to reduce costs to
employers, while the labour-code moves will make it easier for employers
to interfere in workers' decisions about whether or not to join a union.

But it is changes to employment standards that will have an immediate
impact on most workers.  Employment standards govern the workplace for
all nonunion workers except managers and certain occupations, like
doctors and architects.  They are the minimum and only legal protection
from being abused by employers for about two million workers - and
employment standards have just been gutted remorselessly.

Mark Thompson, a professor of commerce and business administration at
the University of B.C. is perhaps the most knowledgeable expert on
provincial employment standards.  In 1993, he chaired a panel of
business, labour and community representatives that held extensive
public hearings into employment standards and issued a detailed report.

Thompson is clearly appalled by some of the changes brought in by Labour
Minister Graham Bruce, particularly the move to effectively eliminate
overtime pay.

"Why do we need the 12-hour day in the 21st century?  Labour was
fighting for the eight-hour day at the turn of the 20th century,"
Thompson asked in an interview with the Georgia Straight.  "I think this
law signals that the 12-hour day is going to become the standard in many
places."

The Liberal amendments allow employers to set up "averaging agreements"
with each individual employee that will regulate hours of work by
"averaging" the number of hours worked over a one to four-week period.
In other words, an employee could be asked to work 80 hours in a week
without receiving a nickel of overtime if he or she didn't work the
following week.

The revised Employment Standards Act technically allows individual
workers to decline to accept these averaging agreements but Thompson
said anyone wanting a job will have to sign.  "It will become a
condition of work.  The employers will impose them," he said.

Then there's child labour.  Under previous legislation, children under
the age of 15 could only work with the approval of the director of
employment standards.  Now it's allowed with the just parental approval.

Who was pushing for this change and where will children under 15 soon be 
found working?  Here's the position advocated by the B.C. Agricultural
Council, representing the farming industry, before the introduction of
amendments: "Farm employers have many seasonal harvest positions but
require flexibility to hire children under the age of 15. . . . The
current requirement for a permit is a regulatory burden that increases
paperwork and is unnecessary to meet objectives of the Act."

And faster than you can say "berrypicker," the Liberals obliged.  "I 
think these changes promote the use of child labour," Thompson said.

For good measure, the Liberals also eliminated key provisions of the act
that regulated the use of farm-labour contractors, who have been
responsible for some of the most outrageous abuses of farm workers.

Many other employment-standards changes will further hurt workers and 
help employers.   Minimum daily hours of work will be cut from four to
just two. That means an employee can be called in for two hours of work
and sent home, a long-time request of the hospitality and restaurant
industry.

Many part-time workers will lose all statutory holiday pay, as
employment standards will require having worked 15 of the last 30
calendar days before the holiday, unless they have signed that averaging
agreement.

And what little remains of overtime provisions has been further cut,
with double-time pay coming only after 12 hours work instead of the
previous 11.  Employers will only be required to keep employment
records, which might provide evidence for worker complaints, for two
years instead of the former five years.

Even after these and other cuts, one more change was needed.  No longer
will employers be required to post employment-standards information at
the workplace, just to make sure workers don't know about even their few
remaining rights.

All of this has been introduced into the legislature without a single
public hearing.  The only way to comments was to respond within 30 days
to a discussion paper posted on a government Web site.

In a laughable statement, Bruce said upon introduction of the
amendments: "This is a move toward a more modern workplace.  We are on
our way to rebuilding labour relationships. . . . It is not an attack on
labour."

Child labour, 12-hour days, no overtime - welcome to the modern Liberal
workplace.  Now get back to work!

* * * *

weststar at telus.net