Jason Kenney is promising to introduce new labour rules that would cut overtime pay for struggling workers in Alberta.
Under the province’s current labour laws, most employers have to pay workers time-and-a-half for overtime — in other words, 1.5 times an employee’s regular wage for all hours worked over 8 hours per day, or 44 hours per week.
Some employers compensate overtime hours with banked overtime, which allows workers to take time off with pay, also at 1.5 times the rate of regular pay.
However, the UCP promised to allow employers to only pay workers regular wages — 33.3% less than current overtime rates — for banked overtime hours.
Bob Barnetson, a professor of labour relations at Athabasca University, said the UCP’s plan would allow employers to avoid paying non-unionized employees overtime rates by forcing workers to enter banked overtime agreements with lower pay.
“It’s about cheapening labour costs for employers and an opportunity to clawback the normal overtime premium,” he told PressProgress.
“Basically Kenney’s trying to create a loophole for employers to evade overtime pay,” he added. “The cost of that is borne by workers, who will have lower wages.”
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