British Columbians asked for input on Employment Standards Act

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – You are getting a chance to have a say on unpaid sick leave and overtime policies, the province wants to hear your thoughts in its first major review of employment laws in 15 years.

B.C. is looking for input until the end of the month on multiple issues to make changes to the province’s Employment Standards Act.

“I think the real challenge is for the government to realize that these are just the first steps of things that they need to do and go much, much further,” adds Gavin McGarrigle with UNIFOR, noting the changes are long overdue. “Even the changes that are proposed really don’t go far enough. We think that there needs to be a much more comprehensive overhaul but certainly, for workers that don’t have any protection right now, this will be welcomed news.”

But Richard Truscott with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says changes could potentially be bad news for small businesses.

“If governments are creating a lot more rules and requirements and regulations that can really handcuff a lot of small businesses,” Truscott adds. “Would be really helpful if the government could hear first hand from business owners themselves about what these rules and regulations may mean for those small businesses in a very practical way.”

He says there needs to be a balance between employment protection and the necessary flexibility to negotiate a more practical solution to some of the issues.

McGarrigle however, disagrees. He argues a lot of workers are unprotected and need a better system in place.

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