The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) in an official communication from the Ontario Minister of Labour, Kevin Flynn, has been made aware of a blitz that will be taking place in the coming weeks on temporary staffing agencies.
The blitz scheduled to continue through February 2015, is said to be intended to, through ‘education and enforcement’ to address health and safety issues across the province, with an emphasis on educating agencies about ensuring health and safety for their employees in work places.
As some will remember, this issue was taken on by Bill 18 from a workers compensation (WSIB) angle in late 2014. Bill 18 for the purposes of WSIB and experience rating, would have effectively transferred the responsibility for temporary workers from the staffing agency to the employer (in our case the carrier) if an injury were to occur. And while the Bill did pass, no coming into force date was assigned to these specific provisions in the Bill, meaning for the moment, this change has been put on hold. If you would like to see more on the Ministry of Labours blitz schedule click here. For more information on Bill 18 please click here