The Employment Standards Act is the law that contains basic rules about employing people and working. Both employees and employers have rights and

responsibilities under the Act.

 

Most employees are covered by the provincial legislation. However, employees working in industries that fall under Federal jurisdiction, such as, Post office, Banks, Railways, Radio stations, Airlines, Television stations etc. are not covered. 

 

If you are member of the trade union and your contract of employment is governed by the collective agreement, you may not be covered by the Act.

 

If you are currently employed with the company, you may be able to file a claim with a request that your name not be disclosed. The Act protects you when you are exercising your rights under it.

 

Section 30 (1) of the Act states:

 

This section clarifies that the employer and the employee may agree in writing that the employee will work on a public holiday which is not normally his working day, the entitlement would be based on section 30 (2) of the Act rather than as set in section 29.

 

Section 30 (2) of the Act states:

 

This section states that if the employee works on a public holiday, he or she must be given another day off which is normally a working day and in addition, must be paid his or her regular wages for the hours worked. The employer and the employee may also agree that instead of getting a day off, he or she will be paid public holiday pay plus premium rate for the hours worked on public holiday.

 

Section 30 (3) of the Act states:

 

This section requires that the employer must give the substituted day within three months of the public holiday or they can agree that the substituted day would be given within 12 months of the public holiday.

 

If you or the employer disagrees with the investigating officer’s decision, both parties have a right to appeal to Ontario Labour Relations Board within 30 days of the officer’s decision. The Board appoints a referee to hear the appeal. It does not cost the employee to request an appeal but the employer may be required to deposit monies in trust with the Ministry of Labour if it is found to be owing. The referee decision is final and binding on both parties.    

 

In the past, the Ministry was very aggressive in defending the rights of an employee and would send a legal counsel to represent the employee at the Board’s hearing to deal with the matter. It rarely does so now. Obviously, the employer has advantage over the employee in these circumstances. The question arises, should the employee also engage the services of a professional? It is my view, employee’s may not engage such services at the officer’s level hearing but may do so at the at the referee level hearing, particularly, if the issues are complex.

 

It is important that if a hearing has been scheduled, the employee must attend such a hearing to present evidence to support its position or to contest the employer’s evidence, otherwise, the officer or the referee may rely on the evidence of the employer to render a decision.   

 

This information is provided for guidance only and should not be considered as a legal advice.

This article is provided by Rajinder K. Batra, who is a retired Employment Standards Officer with the Ministry of Labour with 15 years experience in these matters.

If you have any questions regarding your employment, please contact the writer by e-mail at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

If you don’t have access to e-mail; you can fax your question at (905) 331-1805.
 

Marco Ferrara of Universal Motion passed along this simple tip that saved me years of worry when buying wines.

Marco’s logic is that great wines take time to develop and so does the alcohol content. A mere 12% wine is young and probably not fully developed. A 13% alcohol wine is older and has a greater chance of being full bodied.

Picking a good to great wine has always seemed like too much work. You have to memorize French or Italian labels, perhaps a little Spanish. The vineyards change names. Who has the time?

When I was young and living in Montreal, Le Régie des alcools published a book of their wines every year or so. We made a study of all the ones we could afford rating them by our young palettes.
 

Since Marco gave me that tip years ago, I’ve used it as my guide and ignored the name on the label. Other than checking to see that the wine is dry, I’ve used that little trick to great success in finding low priced but good wines. Tip of the glass to Marco Ferrara.

Wine is said to be a healthy drink which is good reason to imbibe in moderation.

Click HERE to read more columns by Stephan Pate

Meenashi Reddy Madhavan is one of those breed of Indian Authors who have a history of a successful blog which brought them into the focus of publishing world. This is her second book and I have no qualms in accepting that her first book “You Are Here” lies unread in my shelf. That book was launched with much fanfare and I was quite surprised when I saw her second book in the book store because till now I am yet to see it being marketed or splashed around (the way it is usually done these days). I picked the book solely because of its theme & price.

With Confessions Of A Listmaniac (COAL) Meenakshi has forayed into the not-much-explore-by-contemporary-Indian-Authors territory of “Young Adult Fiction”, it is the story of 17 year old Layla. A breezy read the author takes us through the trials & tribulations of a teenager who wants to be popular in her class and is ready to accept any hand offered in that direction. Like any other teenager she has her share of crushes/ heartbreaks/ sibling fights/ breakup with best friend/ finding the real self et. al.

This book is a quick a read and reminds you of your school days when a chipped nail is a national tragedy and when even a glance from your favorite senior could take you to heaven. Well written fast paced this book is worth a read on a rainy day! The innocence of the characters will surely give you a reason to smile.

My only problem with the book is it's Inspired Title!!! Even the Tag line is inspired :-)

3 on 5 from me :)

Author: Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan
Publisher: Scholastic
Price: 150/- INR

Click HERE to read more book reviews.

While many people begin their journey through India in Mumbai, this city is the final leg of our trip. Making our way from the airport, it was clear that Mumbai was much different than the India we have seen so far. Crossing a large bridge toward the city it looked as if we were approaching Vancouver or some other such coastal cosmopolitan city. Large buildings, both commercial and residential, dot the horizon as far as the eye can see. Oddly however, interspersed among the affluent areas and modern buildings are large slums consisting of flimsy-looking makeshift shelters that are constructed of scrap materials and mud. Many look to be about 5 feet square, and likely house anywhere from 2 - 5 people each. Some of these slums house literally a hundred thousand people, and it is estimated that up to half of Mumbai's 20 million inhabitants live in the slums. Mumbai is somewhat analogous to our trip, in that there is an extreme contrast of wealth and affluence set against a backdrop of abject poverty.

We arrived to our hotel, the landmark Taj Mahal, which is quite impressive from the outside and located right across from the Gateway of India. It is crawling with security at every entrance as a result of the terrorist attack here a few years ago. It is similar in many ways to most of the CP/Fairmont hotels in that it is grand and stately in the common areas, but the rooms are somewhat dingy, shoddy and neglected over the years. We overheard a staff member explaining to a guest in the elevator that they had planned to renovate the rooms, but that plan was sidetracked by the "unfortunate episode in 2008". James, of course, resisted blurting out, "Oh, you mean the bloody massacre where guests were brutally slaughtered?"

We do however have a fabulous view from our room of the Gateway of India and the Arabian Sea (unfortunately it's somewhat occluded by wire mesh put in place to keep the pigeons of our deck). We wasted no time getting out to explore the city and started our exploration on the rooftop terrace at the Intercontinental on Marine Drive, and watched the sun set over the Arabian Sea and the city while enjoying an icy cold beverage - fabulous! We then had a very touristic dinner at a popular restaurant called Cafe Leopold which is right by our hotel - this place has become very popular with tourists and locals alike as it is prominently referred to in the book Shantaram (which Simon and I are both currently reading). It's a bit of a dive, and essentially serves fast food (both Indian and Western), but it was decent, cheap and kind of fun to experience.

Interestingly, while James has been quite enjoying the metropolitan vibe of Mumbai (he even declared that he could live here), Simon is less enthused. James finds it exciting, fast-paced and full of life - but Simon feels that it is in many ways just another big city that lacks the same charm we have found in other parts of India we've visited, including Delhi (that being said, with some very unique and interesting aspects). There is no doubt about it; the city is huge and metropolitan, and much more "western" in its way of life than the other parts of India we've visited. This city certainly doesn't seek approval from anyone . . . it's the kind of place that could chew you up and spit you out if you refused to learn to live here.

Our guide for the day was rather disappointing, and unlike all of our other guides he seemed completely disinterested in showing us what Mumbai had to offer. Mumbai is more the kind of city you experience rather than "sight see" in, and he clearly wasn't up for the task. The most interesting things he showed us were; the largest open air laundry in the world (which is really quite something to see - a mostly illiterate workforce washes millions of pieces of laundry by hand each day, and using a special tag and colour sorting system, nothing goes astray and it is apparently incredibly reliable and quick), and a very brief tour of one of the slums which just left us wanting to see more. He showed us most of the major monuments, mostly from the comfort of the car, and dropped us back at the hotel by 13:00. We were happy to be rid of him and decided to spend the rest of the day exploring on our own. First thing on the agenda was lunch, and we found a fabulous restaurant with the help of our Frommer's guide, where James had * THE BEST * Indian food he has had since arriving in India. We then walked through the buzzing streets and markets of Mumbai and to get a feel for the vibe of the city. One odd thing we noticed is that there is a "Xerox" store every ten feet with circa 1980's style photocopy machines - we are both left wondering where this demand for photocopying comes from in such a modern city.

One other really unique phenomenon that exists here is the lunch delivery men. They pick up lunches from an office worker's home in the morning and deliver it to their office every day for the lunch hour, like clockwork. This service is used by millions of people, and costs very little (~$10/month). Over 40,000 illiterate workers perform the service, and apparently NEVER mix up or misplace a lunch using a unique colour and number coded system with various symbols/dots on the lids of plain metal canisters (we will try to get a photo to attach tomorrow). Now why, Simon wondered, would someone not just take their own lunch with them? Our guide explained to us as follows: It is very expensive to live in the city, so most workers live in suburbs 40+ km outside of central Mumbai. They have long commutes, so must leave shortly before 07:00 to get to work. As such, their wives would have to wake up at 4:00 AM to prepare their meals, and this is not feasible (our guide told us they must have hot home-cooked meals because if they only ate sandwiches, they would die .. and apparently eating out is not an option). So the wives get up at 7:00, cook huge meals that are ready by 10:00, and that is where these guys come in. Pretty nifty!

Our travel plans, which had us leaving around noon tomorrow have been thwarted with British Airways strike and we are now not leaving till about 03:00 on the 28th, so that has given us an extra day in Mumbai. We are using that time tomorrow to go on a slum tour. It sounds kind of awful, but it's run by a company that uses the proceeds from the tour to operate a kindergarten in the slum and give back to the community. Our guidebook described it as the most riveting tour they've ever had anywhere in the world, so we are really looking forward to it. Afterwards, we will return to our hotel to prepare for the long journey home which routes us through London, Chicago, and finally to Calgary - ugh! We've had an amazing time in India, and would love to return someday, but we are also looking forward to finally being home.