Here is today's assignment for who have a legitimate reason for not joining our field trip.

Task 1:

Write a report about yesterday's session about ''Employment Standards''. Mention all the new information that was presented to you. Make sure to follow 'Writing a report'' procedure as we have done in class with timeline as well.

Task1：

Employment Standards

Yeaterday I've got a lot of useful information from the session that was presented to me. It was began from "Workplace Safety and Insurance Act", the social worker wrote some points on the board.

Pay period; Deduction; Income Tax; Union Dues. I'll explain them and further details with blow contents.

A few aspects of the ESA

ESA:Employment Standards Act

Wags under ESA
Who is covered under the provision of minimum wage? Can I work for less than minimum wage? What can I do if I amnot being paid the minimum wage?

I understand these questions after the social worker has explained. According to Community Legal Education Ontario, an employer shall establish a recurring pay period and a recurring pay day and shall pay all wages earned during each pay period, other than accruing vacation pay, no later than the pay day for that period. An employer shall pay an employee’s wages,

(a) by cash;

(b) by cheque payable only to the employee.

On or before an employee’s pay day, the employer shall give to the employee a written statement setting out, the items will be listed on it.

(a) the pay period for which the wages are being paid;

(b) the wage rate, if there is one;

(c) the gross amount of wages and, unless the information is provided to the employee in some other manner, how that amount was calculated;

(d) the amount and purpose of each deduction from wages;

(e) any amount with respect to room or board that is deemed to have been paid to the employee.

(f) the net amount of wages being paid to the employee.

Minimum Wage Rate	Wage Rates Prior to June 1, 2014	Wage Rates as of June 1, 2014
General Minimum Wage	$10.25 per hour	$11.00 per hour
Student Minimum Wage	$9.60 per hour	$10.30 per hour
Liquor Servers Minimum Wage	$8.90 per hour	$9.55

Hours of work and overtime pay

These are the general rules in Ontario about

hours of work and
overtime pay.

Maximum Daily Hours of Work

You do not have to work more than:

8 hours a day
or
the number of hours in your regular work day, if it is more than 8.

If you choose to, you can agree with your employer in writing to work more hours. If you do not want to work more hours, you do not have to sign an agreement.

Maximum Weekly Hours of Work

You do not have to work more than 48 hours a week.

If you choose to, you can agree with your employer in writing to work more hours.

If you sign an agreement, your employer must also get approval from the Ministry of Labour's Director of Employment Standards. If you do not want to work more hours, you do not have to sign an agreement.

If you agree in writing to work more than:

48 hours a week, up to 60 hours a week--Your employer can ask you to start working the excess hours 30 days after applying for the Director's approval, as long as certain conditions are met.

You can cancel an agreement to work excess daily or weekly hours by giving your employer two weeks' written notice. Your employer can also cancel an agreement by giving you reasonable notice.

Overtime Pay

For every hour you work over 44 hours a week, your employer must pay you at least 1½ times your regular rate of pay ("time and a half"). Even if you agree in writing to work more than 48 hours a week, your employer must pay you overtime pay for every hour you work over 44 hours a week.

You can agree with your employer in writing to average the hours you work over periods of two or more weeks to calculate overtime pay. If you sign an agreement, your employer must also get approval from the Ministry of Labour's Director of Employment Standards. If you do not want to have your overtime hours averaged, you do not have to sign an agreement.

These agreements must have an expiry date and cannot be cancelled unless both you and your employer agree.

Unionized Employees

Generally, if you are represented by a union, your union would make agreements with your employer on your behalf.

Rest Periods and Eating Period

Your employer must give you at least:

11 consecutive hours off work each day. A "day" is a 24-hour period--it does not have to be a calendar day;
8 hours off work between shifts (unless the total time worked on the shifts is not more than 13 hours or you and your employer have otherwise agreed in writing); and
24 consecutive hours off work each work week, or 48 consecutive hours off every two work weeks.

You must also get a 30-minute eating period after no more than five hours of work. You can agree with your employer to split this eating period into two shorter breaks.

Your Rights are Protected

Your employer cannot intimidate you, fire you, suspend you, reduce your pay, punish you in any way or threaten any of these actions because you:

refuse to work more than the maximum daily or weekly hours of work;
refuse to sign an agreement to work more than the maximum daily or weekly hours of work;
refuse to work more than the number of excess hours you agreed to work; or
ask questions about your rights under the ESA.

If this happens, contact the Ministry of Labour. Ministry staff can help you understand your rights, answer your questions and investigate your complaint.

Note: If you are represented by a union and you think your rights have been violated, you should talk to your union representative before contacting the Ministry of Labour.

Termination under ESA

The social worker wrote some question to let us know clearly all of details about more employment information.

Can my employer teminition my employmeng without a reason?

What does "probation" mean?

How much notic shoule my employer give me before terminating my employment?

When is a notice not neccessary?

Do I need to give a notice?

Termination of Employment Defined

A number of expressions are commonly used to describe situations when employment is terminated. These include "let go," "discharged," "dismissed," "fired" and "permanently laid off."

Under the ESA, in most cases, when an employer ends the employment of an employee who has been continuously employed for three months, the employer must provide the employee with either written notice of termination, termination pay or a combination (as long as the notice and the number of weeks of termination pay together equal the length of notice the employee is entitled to receive).

The ESA does not require an employer to give an employee a reason why his or her employment is being terminated. There are, however, some situations where an employer cannot terminate an employee's employment even if the employer is prepared to give proper written notice or termination pay. For example, an employer cannot end someone's employment, or penalize them in any other way, if any part of the reason for the termination of employment is based on the employee asking questions about theESA or exercising a right under the ESA, such as refusing to work in excess of the daily or weekly hours of work maximums, or taking a leave of absence specified in the ESA.

Written Notice of Termination and Termination Pay

Under the ESA:

an employer can terminate the employment of an employee who has been employed continuously for three months or more if the employer has given the employee proper written notice of termination and the notice period has expired;
or
an employer can terminate the employment of an employee without written notice or with lessnotice than is required if the employer pays termination pay to the employee.

The following chart specifies the amount of notice required:
Amount of notice required if an employee has been continuously employed for at least three months

Period of Employment	Notice Required
Less than 1 year	1 week
1 year but less than 3 years	2 weeks
3 years but less than 4 years	3 weeks
4 years but less than 5 years	4 weeks
5 years but less than 6 years	5 weeks
6 years but less than 7 years	6 weeks
7 years but less than 8 years	7 weeks
8 years or more	8 weeks

Then, she continuely introduced "Employment insurance" to us.

1.Laid off

2.EI

3.Sick

4.Maternity

5.Parental

E I

Need to have worked betweent 420-700 hours in the previous year.
Will need 910 hours of work if you are in the workplace for the first time or retunre to work after a period of two years.
Must apply within 4 week from lasted of work.
Employment must be terminiated by the employer and ROE was issued.
If you are fired or you quit the job, must be able to explain the reason why.
Maximum is 10 months.

Compassionate leave

Bereavement leave

Family Medical leave

Pregnancy and Parental leave

There are too much details related this aspect, so I just chose 2 typical cases to describe them.

Family Medical leave

All employees, whether full-time, part-time, permanent, or term contract, who are covered by the ESAare entitled to family medical leave.

There is no requirement that an employee be employed for a particular length of time, or that the employer employ a specified number of employees in order for the employee to qualify for family medical leave.

Care or support includes, but is not limited to: providing psychological or emotional support; arranging for care by a third party provider; or directly providing or participating in the care of the family member.

Pregnancy and Parental leave

Pregnant employees have the right to take pregnancy leave of up to 17 weeks of unpaid time off work. In some cases the leave may be longer. Employers do not have to pay wages to someone who is on pregnancy leave.

New parents have the right to take parental leave--unpaid time off work when a baby or child is born or first comes into their care. Birth mothers who took pregnancy leave are entitled to up to 35 weeks' leave. Birth mothers who do not take pregnancy leave and all other new parents are entitled to up to 37 weeks' parental leave.

Parental leave is not part of pregnancy leave and so a birth mother may take both pregnancy and parental leave. In addition, the right to a parental leave is independent of the right to pregnancy leave. For example, a birth father could be on parental leave at the same time the birth mother is on either her pregnancy leave or parental leave.

Employees on leave have the right to continue participation in certain benefit plans and continue to earn credit for length of employment, length of service, and seniority. In most cases, employees must be given their old job back at the end of their pregnancy or parental leave.

An employer cannot penalize an employee in any way because the employee is or will be eligible to take a pregnancy or parental leave, or for taking or planning to take a pregnancy or parental leave.

I have known more rights of employee under the ESA in workpalces of Toronto, I would like to share these useful information to new immigrants. In addition, I'm willing to enclose the contact of Worker's Action Centre:

Tel:416-531-0778

Fax:416-533-0107

720 Spadina Avenue, Suit 223, Toronto, ON. M5S 2T9

Task 2:

Practice our Christmas song lyrics 'Deck the Halls', and then record it on this link and post it on your blog.

s0bR1r0LBGLo

Deck the Halls

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa la la la la la la la!

'Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la la la la!
Don we now our gay apparel, Fa la la la la la la la!
Troll the ancient Yuletide carol, Fa la la la la la la la!

See the blazing yule before us, Fa la la la la la la la!
Strike the harp and join the chorus, Fa la la la la la la la!

Follow me in merry measure, Fa la la la la la la la!
While I tell of Yuletide treasure, Fa la la la la la la la!

Fast away the old year passes, Fa la la la la la la la!
Hail the new, ye lads and lasses, Fa la la la la la la la!
Sing we joyous all together! Fa la la la la la la la!
Heedless of the wind and weather, Fa la la la la la la la!

angelamei

Tuesday 9 December 2014

Employment Standards and the record of " Deck the Halls"