Ontario workers pay for Ford PCs' 90% drop in employment law charges

Did previously negligent employers suddenly all decide to comply with laws? Or did the PC government just stop enforcing laws?

Charges under the Ontario law that sets minimum wage and job standards have fallen by 90 per cent over the past 10 years, according to court data obtained by the Ontario Federation of Labour and Data Shows.

The Employment Standards Act sets minimum wages and terms of work, such as prohibitions against wage theft, a ban on employers stealing tips, and limits before overtime must be paid. It sets out vacation pay and holidays. The ESA’s minimum standards are a floor under every individual or union employment contract.

“Doug Ford works hard at distraction, and we pay the price as working people,” said OFL president Laura Walton. Ontario unions fought hard for workplace laws so that you get paid, you get vacation pay, and you get overtime.”

“It’s clear where his priorities are, and it’s not with workers – especially those working precarious jobs where wage theft is rampant,” said Walton.

And 25% of employment standards charges were withdrawn by the crown or a judge

And court data shows court enforcement of the Employment Standards Act, and the fines imposed on bad bosses who violate worker rights has virtually stopped.

Over 1,500 ESA charges were filed in court in 2016. But just 150 last year. And that’s up from only 56 charges in 2020 in Ontario, a province of about eight million workers.

The Ontario Ministry of Labour employs Standards Officers to enforce the Employment Standards Act, which gives them the authority to lay charges for breach of the the law’s requirements.

ESA charges are prosecuted by Crown Attorneys assigned to the Ministry of Labour but employed by the Ministry of the Attorney-General. Charges are filed by crown prosecutors and heard in the Ontario Court of Justice, the source of this data.

The data very strongly suggest a policy decision of government, either within the MOL or MAG, in 2016 or 2017 directed officers or prosecutors to stop laying charges.

And even with just a paltry 150 charges to prosecute, Ontario’s overloaded courts last year withdrew 37 of the charges, or 25 per cent of those submitted to the court that year.

Data Shows yesterday on Monday detailed research from NDP Attorney-Genceral critic Kristyn Wong-Tam showing 338,000 Highway Traffic Act charges were dropped in 2024/25 including 42 per cent of charges for stunt driving and 31 per cent of dangerous driving charges. The number of dropped HTA charges have doubled since 2015.

Ontario courts are badly backlogged with even serious criminal charges, including murder charges, being withdrawn because trials cannot be carried out before constitutional time limits.

The Supreme Court set the Jordan limits in 2016, the year before employment standards offices stopped laying charges. The Jordan limits require that charges under the Employment Standards Act must come to trial within 18 months of charge.

In the minds of some group, it seems the solution to complying with the Supreme Court’s limits on delay to charge being tried is to stop laying charges.