Annual Report 2008-09

• Issued: June 2009
• ISSN: 1718-682X
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• PDF Version [ 131 Kb / 24 pages | Download Adobe Reader ]

In 2008-2009, the Ministry of Labour continued to contribute to the government's priorities of creating A More Prosperous Ontario and A Healthier Ontario by ensuring safe, fair, and healthy workplaces that create productive relationships between employers and employees and a competitive economy that generates widespread benefits for all Ontarians. In 2008-09 the Ministry continued to make progress in working toward its goals of:

• Making workplaces safer and healthier by focusing proactive inspections on firms with a poor health and safety compliance record, high injury rates and factors such as associated costs, presence of hazards inherent to the activities of the business and the presence of new, young or otherwise vulnerable workers;
• Protecting vulnerable workers and making workplaces fairer through use of pro-active inspections, improvements in employment standards claims management, enhanced community outreach, the provision of multi-channel access to information; and
• Creating and maintaining a stable labour relations environment through effective delivery of neutral dispute resolution and education services.

Making Workplaces Safer and Healthier

In 2008-2009, the Ministry made further progress in its enforcement intervention strategy by:

• Achieving a Lost-Time Injury (LTI) rate of 1.7 per 100 workers, exceeding the target of 1.8 per 100 workers.

In 2008-2009, the Ministry of Labour also modernized health and safety regulation by:

• Launching a new four-year strategy called Safe At Work Ontario to enforce the Occupational Health and Safety Act while educating workers about the importance of workplace safety. This initiative builds on the Ministry's previous Targeted Intervention strategy and represents an evolution from an enforcement-based program toward a compliance-focused program. The new vision was designed to strengthen workplace safety, thereby increasing productivity for Ontario's economy and reducing strain on the health care system.
• Making it easier for constructors, employers and individuals engaged in construction projects in Ontario to meet the regulatory compliance requirements through the use of a new and free electronic Notification of Project (e-NOP) application form that is available on-line.
• Continuing to fight the underground economy in the construction sector through the introduction of new legislation that extends benefits and services contained in the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 (WSIA) to independent operators in construction and other individuals in the construction industry who currently do not have coverage. This legislation was passed in November 2008 and will fully come into effect by 2012.
• Improving enforcement of occupational health and safety regulations by creating a new team of health care specialists to help reduce the rate of injury and illness in health care workplaces.
• Protecting more health care workers by making the use of safety-engineered needles mandatory in long-term care homes, laboratories, specimen collection centres and psychiatric facilities by April 2009.
• Reviewing for the fifth time, the Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) and proposing changes and⁄or additions for 21 hazardous chemical substances.

Protecting Vulnerable Workers and Making Workplaces Fairer

In 2008-2009, the Ministry made further progress in enforcing employment standards by:

• Conducting more than 2,100 proactive inspections and thereby exceeding the target of 1,950 inspections.
• Initiating approximately 700 prosecutions as of February 2009.
• Recovering approximately $8.2 million from claims, inspections and post-investigation on behalf of vulnerable workers (April 2008 to December 2008).
• Introducing new legislation that, if passed, would amend the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) to:
• allow temporary help agency employees to be treated fairly and have better opportunities to move to sustainable employment; and,
• provide unpaid job-protected leave for living organ donor employees. This builds on the 2007 Organ Donation Strategy which includes the establishment of a fund that will reimburse living organ donors for reasonable, out-of-pocket expenses and lost income associated with their organ donation.
• Realigning more officers to the workplace inspection team to help recover more assessments and penalties from claims and inspections.
• Hiring additional temporary staff to manage and reduce claims inventory⁄case backlogs.

In 2008-2009, the Ministry supported the government's Poverty Reduction Strategy and continued to implement a Transformation Strategy to improve service delivery and increase enforcement by:

• Conducting pro-active inspections and expanded investigations of employers who are within high risk sectors, who have a history of non-compliance, or who are suspected of being non-compliant;
• Providing education and outreach to improve compliance, as well as multi-channel access to information, including provision of multi-language materials; improving claims intake and claims management services through the centralization of claims intake in one location and implementing a triage system to process employment standards claims; and
• Enhancing information systems to improve e-access and management of claims; reviewing and updating procedures and policies; and developing and implementing data management and reporting processes.

Creating and maintaining a stable labour relations environment

In 2008-2009, the Ministry promoted fair, balanced and productive labour relations in Ontario workplaces by:

• Providing neutral dispute resolution services in the negotiation of collective agreements, resulting in a settlement rate of 97.4 per cent without a strike or lockout.

In 2008-2009, the Ministry continued to provide effective delivery of neutral dispute resolution and education services to the unionized sectors of the province by:

• Working with the health, education and construction sectors in regard to labour relations best practices. For example, the following organizations participated in the Interactive Solutions program:
• the Ministry of Health & Long Term Care and Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU); Ministry of Children and Youth Services and OPSEU; Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services and OPSEU; and
• organizations such as the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA), the Institute of Communications and Advertising (ICA) and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA); Halton District School Board and Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation Unit (OSSTF); Ontario Lottery & Gaming and Canadian Auto Workers (CAW); Atlantic Packaging and the Graphic Communications International Union.
• Developing the Construction Industry Joint Advisory Panel to find ways to promote a stable and prosperous construction industry in Ontario.

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