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Location: Home > Employment Standards > Blitz Results: Precarious Employment and Temporary Foreign Workers
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Blitz Results: Precarious Employment and

Temporary Foreign Workers
Issued: Novem ber 16, 2015
Content last reviewed: Novem ber 2015

Some employees are at greater risk than others of not receiving their employment standards
entitlements. They may also lack the ability and/or resources to understand their rights under the
Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA).
From May 1 to July 31, 2015, Ministry of Labour employment standards officers conducted two
simultaneous blitzes focusing on:

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Health and Safety

new, young and vulnerable workers engaged in precarious employment and

temporary foreign workers engaged in all types of employment arrangements.

Labour Relations

The Ministry of Labour considers temporary foreign workers to be those who have obtained work in
Ontario through the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).

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Mobility

Precarious employment refers to work that is seasonal, part-time or temporary. Such work is unlike a
traditional employment relationship that involves a full-time, permanent arrangement with one employer.

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Temporary foreign workers, new, young and other vulnerable workers are more likely to be employed in
precarious employment.

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The goals of these blitzes were to educate employers and promote compliance with the ESA in sectors
that often employ these vulnerable workers.

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Workplaces visited during the precarious employment blitz included:

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Health & Safety At Work Today

amusement and recreation industries

building services (e.g. janitorial, maid services, etc.)
investigation and security services

LiveSafe! WorkSmart!

Workplaces visited during the temporary foreign workers blitz included:

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restaurants
agriculture (vegetable farming, other crop farming, etc.)
construction
In both blitzes, employment standards officers checked to see if employers were complying with core
ESA standards, with a particular focus on:
record keeping
hours of work
overtime pay
minimum wage
public holidays
Officers delivered educational packages to every workplace inspected during the blitzes. These packages
included:
an employment standards poster entitled Employment Standards in Ontario What You Need to Know

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an information sheet created specifically for the two blitzes that features key employment standards
resources available online
a poster entitled Health & Safety at Work Prevention Starts Here that summarizes workers
occupational health and safety rights and responsibilities as well as the responsibilities of workers,
employers and supervisors

Results
Table 1 Precarious Employment Blitz May 1 to July 31, 2015
304
Total inspections
Employers compliant [1]

72

Employers not compliant

232

Compliance tools issued [2]

758

Rate of voluntary compliance [3]

96%

Money recovered for employees

Over $361,000

Most common monetary violations

public holiday pay

overtime pay
vacation pay

Most common non-monetary

violations

hours of work - excess daily/weekly

vacation pay - written agreements
record-keeping

[1]
[2]
[3]

No violations found
Compliance orders, notices of contravention, offence notices (ticket) or orders to pay wages
Percentage of money owing to employees, assessed during the blitz and voluntarily paid by employers
Table 2 Temporary Foreign Workers Blitz May 1 to July 31, 2015
64

Total inspections

Employers compliant [4]

24

Employers not compliant

40

Compliance tools issued [5]

112

Rate of voluntary compliance [6]

99%

Money recovered for employees

Over $17,800

Most common monetary violations

public holiday pay

vacation pay
overtime pay

Most common non-monetary

violations

record-keeping
vacation pay - written agreements
wage statements

[4]
[5]
[6]

No violations found
Compliance orders, notices of contravention, offence notices (ticket) or orders to pay wages
Percentage of money owing to employees, assessed during the blitz and voluntarily paid by employers

Compliance enforcement summary

An employment standards officer can issue a non-monetary compliance order if the officer finds an
employer has contravened the ESA. The officer can order an employer or other person to stop
contravening a provision and to take certain steps to comply.
In total, officers issued:
704 compliance orders during the precarious employment blitz and
107 compliance orders during the temporary foreign workers blitz.

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When monetary contraventions are found and voluntary compliance is not achieved, an officer issues an
order to pay wages. One order to pay wages was issued during the precarious employment blitz.
Officers also issued tickets under Part I of the Provincial Offences Act to some employers during the
blitzes. The tickets included a fine of $295 plus a victim fine surcharge.
In total, officers issued:
47 tickets during the precarious employment blitz and
five tickets during the temporary foreign workers blitz.
Employment standards officers have the power to issue notices of contravention with prescribed
penalties starting at $250 when they believe an employer has contravened a provision of the ESA.
In total, officers issued:
Six notices of contravention during the precarious employment blitz.

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