New Data show thousands of Ontario companies violating country’s toughest anti-harassment law 

This article examines the addition of the new anti-harassment laws that make it mandatory for employers to investigate all harassment complaints. Specifically, this article focuses on the ways around this law that are taken in the food services and drinking places in Ontario. This law was enacted in 2016 and was entitled the Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act (Hancey, 2019). A report analyzed by the globe and mail stated that, “3,563 Ontario employers violated all harassment-related laws from September 2016, to January 2018” (Hancey, 2019). These employers were cited for 7,800 instances of failing to follow the law. The issue discussed in the article explains how the new law still allows big chains to offload responsibility for workplace harassment onto franchise owners (Hancey, 2019). The following figure represents the prevalence of workplace harassment cases in specific industries.

Because the law does not specify who is responsible, the franchise owner is the direct employer, meaning that the parent company is not legally responsible for responding to harassment complaints. This is an issue because the parent company keeps their good name and franchise owners takes the blame. The parent company, in this case, Tim Hortons place responsibility on the franchise owner but don’t provide the franchise owner with the proper training or knowledge of their roles and responsibilities (Hancey, 2019). This does not excuse franchise owners sexually harassing their employees, however providing them with proper training can teach them the consequences that follow their actions, or how to deal with reports when filed by employees. In addition to this, parent companies should teach the employees who work at their chains their rights as employees to be free of sexual harassment and to feel safe in their workplace (Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2013). This article examines a case at Second Cup in Ottawa, where an individual experienced sexual harassment from her former boss but did not report the sexual harassment because she was unaware that Ontario’s occupational health and safety laws contained specific harassment policies (Hancey, 2019). 

This article also examines why it is the food industry specifically where this issue is prevalent – where experts suggest that it is because employees are prominently women and franchise owners are mostly men in the food industry. When reading this article, it becomes clear that this new law was a huge step forward – however it needs to be enforced and extended to parent companies and owners as a whole. Employees, women and men, have the right to be free from sexual and gender-based harassment (Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2013). Employees should be taught by their employers their rights in the workplace, and employers should be taught their roles and responsibilities especially when discussing the safety of their employees. 

References 

Hancey, Corbett. (2019, June 10). New Data show thousands of Ontario companies violating country’s toughest anti-harassment law. Retrieved February 28, 2020, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-new-data-show-thousands-of-ontario-companies-violating-countrys/

Ontario Human Rights Commission. (2013). Guide to your Rights and Responsibilities under the Human Rights Code. Retrieved February 28, 2020, from http://www.ohrc.on.ca/sites/default/files/Guide%20to%20Your%20Rights%20and%20Responsibilities%20Under%20the%20Code_2013.pdf

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-gender-earnings-gap-starts-upon-graduation-and-widens-quickly-says/

            An article written by Matt Lundy entitled ‘Gender earnings gap starts upon graduation and widens quickly, says report,’ discusses the gender earnings gap that exists after graduation. This issue involves Canadians, where the article discusses men, women, and postsecondary graduates. The issue of a gender earnings gap has been prominent in Canada and across the globe for a very long time. This issue is also discussed by David Doorey (2016) in ‘Regulating Wages and Pay Equity,’ where he sheds light on the 53% earning gap that existed between men and women dating as far back as 1911 (Pg. 276). There have been many studies and research done surrounding this issue, and there is a strong demand for change. There are current solutions that exist to this issue that Canada has introduced – for example; equal pay laws, however there is still a long way to go as demonstrated by the large earnings gap. By learning about the past and current earnings gap, it becomes evident that this is a current, common, and prevalent issue within Canada and that this issue must be solved, and new policy and legislations must be integrated. 

            The article written by Matt Lundy discusses multiple types of earnings gaps that exist, however emphasis is placed on the earnings gap between men and women. This issue both causes and reinforces inequalities, as it promotes unfairness in earnings and income. This is something that must be solved both by introduction of new policy and by government intervention. Canada must combat this inequality and unfairness by regulating wages and introducing policies and legislations that do so. This article discusses when gender earnings gaps are most prevalent, stating that earning gaps start immediately after postsecondary graduation and, “widens notably in the first five years in the work force” (Lundy, 2020). The article discusses that a gap can be found within every field of study or type of degree, which reinforces that this is not an issue that affects only one of us, but all of us, as employees, employers, and Canadians. This article specifically focuses on the earnings of everyone who graduated from a publicly funded postsecondary institution in 2010. This makes this article and research relevant as it highlights the existence of an earnings gap in Canada that exists currently and is not only an issue of the past. 

            To alleviate this issue, the government needs to intervene to regulate the wage gap, and combat inequality and unfairness. This becomes evident when examining not only the gender earning gap, but also other inequalities that exist within wage regulation. The article also discusses the gap that exists within this study and within others in this field, where nearly two-thirds of the earnings gap was unexplained – which authors accredit to unobservable factors that would not be included in the data being analyzed. As discussed in the course, it is the role of the government to regulate wage and to ensure that inequalities are not further reinforced. Currently, only seven Canadian jurisdictions have introduced Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value Laws, or pay equity legislation, something that must be done by all Canadian jurisdictions. This is not something that is only achieved by the government, but also by employers and employees. There are many steps to this process, outlined in past research. I believe this solution is best because it promotes the regulation of wage in Canada that is fair, and addresses inequalities that exists within the earnings of men and women.

Hello All,

My name is Alaina Lewis and I am a second year Sociology student at Queen’s University and am also taking courses to receive my Employment Relations Certificate. I have loved all the jobs that I have had, however my favourite job has been coaching house league volleyball. This job was very hands on, and allowed me the experience to teach younger students something that I love. Looking at the course outline made me especially excited to learn about week three’s topic; Combatting Inequality & Unfairness: Wage Regulation in Canada. I am interested in this topic, and am also looking forward to learning about the other topics that are discussed in the course. I look forward to getting to know you all through your blog posts!

Alaina Lewis