Does government care about low-wage workers?

I recently had a reason to look into labour laws in Newfoundland and Labrador and was quite surprised by what I discovered. I thought I knew a bit about our legislated labour standards, but I knew very little.

Here is a question most people think they know the answer to. If you work full time at a pay rate of $12 per hour, what is the minimum you can be paid for overtime? Eighteen dollars per hour overtime, you say? Nope. The minimum overtime rate is the minimum wage times 1.5. This means that the overtime rate for the $12 per hour employee is $15.75 if the employer chooses to use this formula.

When my friend, who was in exactly this situation, told me this is what was happening, I thought he was full of it. I called the Labour Standards Division to clarify and, wow, it’s true! I downloaded the Act to see if there are any other hidden tidbits in there. Here are some of the things I found.

If you start a new job and work 12 months straight, you are entitled to two weeks’ vacation. This is true, and false. The Act states you are entitled to two weeks off after 12 months of service, but the employer doesn’t have to let you take that time off for another 10 months. You can be forced to work for 22 months before you get a vacation. How long do I have to work for my employer before I get three weeks’ vacation? Fifteen years!

If you are having a baby, the federal government allows a year of leave and you can collect EI for that year. N.L. legislation says the company you work for can fire you if you take more than 17 weeks off.

If a parent, or even your child — God forbid — passes away, how much time off can you take? You are entitled to one paid day and two unpaid days. Then you get your ass back to work.

Want to take a coffee break? You are entitled to a one hour unpaid break after five full hours’ work. No 15-minute break after two hours, as I thought.

I have even seen public service union collective agreements that have some of these rules in effect, including the overtime clause.

Most people who work for these type of wages are in the service industry and are paid at or near minimum wage. Yet even with our 13.8 per cent unemployment rate, these businesses can’t find local workers and are employing temporary foreign workers (TFWs). They say that TFWs work harder, show up on time, don’t complain, are polite, take direction better, etc. There’s good reason for TFWs to act this way. When workers arrive here from the Philippines, Mexico, etc., and if they work continuously for a couple of years, they are entitled to permanent resident status, thereby side-stepping usual immigration legislation. I’m sure this is a huge factor when you consider their work ethic.

Many young adults have trouble holding a minimumwage job in the service industry. There is little to hold them there and they are still learning lessons about independent living. To get a better qualified, dedicated workforce, a business need only increase wages. If a business can’t afford to pay a living wage to your employees, I suggest the business model is flawed. You count on government legislation to prop you up to the detriment of the population.

Does government care about low-wage workers? They seldom vote anyway, and higherwage workers don’t often think about them unless they’re standing in line for a coffee or burger.

Do we really need a fastfood outlet for every hundred feet of road if they can’t pay a decent wage? Would an extra quarter on a coffee or plate of fries kill our pocketbooks? Can we not afford to demand a decent wage for a decent day’s work? Minimum wage should be at least $15 per hour, indexed to inflation. The extra money would go back into the economy. Government doesn’t embrace wage increases because they want that money to go into the business owners’ bank accounts so that they are then better able to write those big political donation cheques. Ask Dwight Ball or Cathy Bennett, or even Justin Trudeau, how many $20-a-plate dinners have they attended. Ken Collis Conception Bay South

If a business can’t afford to pay a living wage to your employees, I suggest the business model is flawed.