The Ontario government will hold minimum wage at $14 an hour for the next two years and get rid of the current two paid sick days.Under current legislation, workers have up to 10 days off — receiving pay for the sick days only.Under new legislation, workers will be allocated eight unpaid days off.Speaking at Leland Industries in Scarborough, Jim Wilson — the minister in charge of reducing red tape for businesses — said the Ford government is eliminating the “job killing” parts of the Liberals’ Bill 148 which provided the boost in the minimum wage and another — to $15 — in January.He said the government will introduce the Making Ontario Open for Business Act Tuesday afternoon, to be followed by a series of bills to “lower business costs and boost competition.”Bill 148 — which was was to modernize Ontario’s labour law — also provided workers with up to 10 days off. Before the bill, 1.6 million Ontario workers did not have access to an unpaid, job-protected sick day because of an exemption on workplaces with less than 50 employees. The government’s new leave provisions will not reintroduce that exemption. Under the PC bill, workers will have up to two sick, three personal and two bereavement days, all without pay.Labour Minister Laurie Scott said the provision for three weeks of vacation for employees with five years at a company will remain.She also said existing rules around time off for victims of domestic violence will remain. Scott said she has spent the last four months meeting with businesses and employee groups and reviewed all sections of Bill 148 before the new bill was created.She said there were calls from some to repeal the $14 minimum wage, which she felt was “immensely unfair to Ontario workers.”Starting October 2020, increases to minimum wage will be tied to inflation.That way, she said, it will be “determined by economics, not politics.” She ...
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