The first change to the employment standards is that effective 1st October, 2014, the minimum wages will increase to $10.70 per hour from the previous $10.45. This will affect vacation and holiday pay for all the workers based on the number of hours worked.
Young workers under the age of 16 must now have a permit from Employment Standards before being able to legally work and workers under 12 can only be allowed to work in exceptional circumstances. Certain limitations exist for workers under 16 as they cannot work on construction sites, any industrial or manufacturing processes, drilling or servicing work on rigs, work on scaffolds or swing stages and finally pruning, repairing, maintaining or involved in removing trees.
Workers under the age of 18 cannot work in forestry, saw and pulp mills, any confined spaces, in underground mining operations, work in on the face or in open pit quarries and involved in work where asbestos abatement or removal of asbestos is present.
Workers must now be paid at least twice a month and within 10 working days of the pay period. When workers are terminated they must be paid within 10 working days from the termination date and given pay statements with their wages. Employers are required to keep records of all employees, the hours worked and wages paid to the workers.
The following deductions is allowed, pay advances, payroll corrections for errors made any costs for tools, tickets received from photo radar and red light cameras and costs for accommodation. Interest may not be charged and no fees for cashing cheques or advances given to the workers. Uniforms are not chargeable to the workers.
Business expenses may not be charged to the workers. The deductions that benefit workers allowed are health packages, insurance, social funding, any voluntary services or goods bought from their employer, certain educational expenses and meals or rent payments.
The working hours in the standards are 40 hours per week and 8 hours per day, any hours exceeding this is overtime and must be paid at the rate applicable. Currently this is at 1 ½ times the regular hourly rate.
The following is considered unpaid leave options for the workers, Maternity leave, 17 weeks, Parental leave, 37 weeks, Family leave, 3 days, Compassionate leave, 8 weeks, leave for organ Donation, 13 weeks, Bereavement leave, 3 days, leave for reservists, when needed for service, Citizenship ceremony, 4 hours, Death or disappearance of child, 52-104 weeks if child died, critical illness of child, 37 weeks.
Workers qualify for 2 weeks vacation leave in the first 4 years of service and 3 weeks after 5 years of service. Workers must receive 2 percent of their gross wages for each week of vacation. Workers in the 2 week category receive 4 percent and workers in the 3 week category 6 percent of gross wages.
There are eight general holidays in Manitoba:
- New Year’s Day
- Louis Riel Day (3rd Monday in February)
- Good Friday
- Victoria Day
- Canada Day
- Labour Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Day
The following rules apply for termination of service, workers with more than 30 days but less than 1 year of service, 1 week, 1 year to 3 years, 2 weeks, 3 years to 5 years, 4 weeks, 5 years to 10 years, 6 weeks and more than 10 years of service is 8 weeks of notice on termination by either party.
Employment Standards – Government of Manitoba: www.gov.mb.ca/labour/standards/
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