COLUMN BUSINESS TALK Looming legislation C How bill 148 can affect how we run our practice BY ANTHONY LOMBARDI hanges to the Ontario employ-ment law have been passed and for small business owners, this is bad news. The Cana-dian Centre for Economic Analysis was commissioned by the Keep Ontario Working coalition to measure the potential impacts of six key areas of change in Bill 148, including changes to minimum wages, equal pay provisions, vacation, scheduling, personal emergency leave, and unionization. The economic impact analysis data found: • $23 billion hit on businesses over the next two years alone. • Some 185,000 Ontario jobs at imme-diate risk over the next two years. • Of those workers at risk, 30,000 are youth under 25 years and 96,000 are likely to be women. • 50 per cent increase to inflation for this year and the foreseeable future. • cost of everyday consumer goods and services to go up by an average of $1,300 per household every year. As business owners, we dislike these changes as a whole. Unfortunately, it has become a reality. So, until there is a provincial change in government, it is unlikely these newly imposed laws will be amended anytime soon. Sabatina Vassalli, an employment lawyer at Agro & Zaffiro, explains these changes in terms we could understand. Some of these new changes are reasonable, while others (i.e. mul-tiple wage increases) are seemingly an attempt at getting re-elected. Legislative changes Independent contractor status – Employers will be pro-hibited from treating an employee as if he or she was not an employee. Request for changes to schedule or location – Em-ployees will be able to request changes to their schedule or work location. Employers will have an obligation to discuss the changes and either approve them or deny them. Scheduling – Employers will be required to pay a DR. ANTHONY LOMBARDI is consultant to athletes in the NFL, CFL and NHL, and founder of the Hamilton Back Clinic in Hamilton, Ont. He teaches his fundamental EXSTORE Assessment System and conducts practice-building workshops to health professionals. Visit exstore.ca for information. 14 Canadian Chiropractor February 2018 minimum of three hours for shifts that are under three hours, and to pay for three hours if the employer cancels the employee’s shift within 48 hours. This also applies to tem-porary agencies. Equal pay for equal work – The new law will prohibit employers from having different rates of pay for employees based on their employment status, but will allow you to pay employees who do the same job different pay rates based on seniority. Enhanced pregnancy and parental leave – New moth-ers can start parental leave 12 weeks before and employees who experience still-birth or miscarriage will be entitled to 12 weeks leave. Parental leave is now 78 weeks after the child is born (increased from 52). Personal emergency leave – All employees will now be entitled to 10 days of personal emergency leave. If the em-ployee has been employed for more than a week, then two of the 10 leave days must be paid. Employers will have a right to request evidence of the personal emergency days, but will not have the right to request a doctor’s note. Domestic violence or sexual violence leave – Employ-ees who are employed for at least 13 consecutive weeks may take a leave of 10 days up to 15 weeks without pay, if the employee or their child experiences domestic or sexual vio-lence, or even a threat of the sort. The leave must be taken for specific listed reasons. Family leave – Family medical leave will be increased from eight to 27 weeks. Additionally, upon the death of a www.canadianchiropractor.ca Photo: Getty Images
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