Research on Employment Standards Code

Question: Discuss about the Research on Employment Standards Code. Answer: Introduction: This Act came into force in the year 1996. This Act was formed by the government of Alberta as these standards were importantly to be made for the betterment of the employees and the employers. These were formed for the purpose of installing the human and moral values into the working of the employees in Alberta. This Code was formed as a toolkit for the employers (Alberta, 2016). It was formed so that the employers could be held accountable as after the application of these laws, the statement of earnings is to be provided by each and every employer to the employees and therefore this is how the employees could be made aware about their rights. The main aim of the Alberta Employment Standards Code is to prescribe the main source of hour and also wage law. One of the recent amendments that have been made in this Code is the Employment Standards (Compassionate Care leave Act, 2012). This amendment has sought to make changes to the earlier code. It says that those employers that are regulated non-federally in Alberta would get the unpaid leave of about 8 weeks for the purpose of taking care of a family member who is terminally ill. The reason for this amendment was to provide for those employees that were the primary caregiver of the family members (GlobalWorkplaceInsider, 2013). This kind of relaxation in the laws was given for rendering support to the family of those employees who had been working for 52 consecutive weeks. Application of the Act Section 2 of this Act applies to each and every person who is an employer or an employee. Even the Crown is included in the same(Alberta, 2012). This Crown is in right of Alberta and also the employees of the same. There are however certain exceptions to this. There are certain people who are not included in this Act. Those employees and employers who are a member of the municipal police service that are appointed in accordance with the Police Act cannot be included under the purview of this Act. Also their employers could not be brought under the purview of this Act. The employers and the employees of those Acts which have expressly mentioned the fact that the present Act would not apply, would also not be included under this Act. There are some provisions that would even apply to these exempted categories. These provisions relate to the maternity or paternal leaves (Law for Alberta Women, 2015). Also, other provisions that are related to compassionate care and reservist leave would be granted to them. There are various regulations and divisions that are not available to the employees that have been employed on a farm and the people, whose employment is related, in a direct manner, to the production, of milk, eggs, fruits, livestock as defined by the Livestock Industry Diversification Act etc., at the primary level (Martinelli Lau, 2014). Those employees who do not work under the province or internationally, the employees under federal jurisdiction and the workers or contractors that are self-employed are also excluded from this Act. Purpose and Overview of the Act Purpose: The purpose of this Act is to establish the minimum standards for the employers and the employees working under the government of Alberta. These minimum standards pertain to the areas that include the number of hours of work, the leaves to be given for vacations, provision of wages and overtime. The main aim of these laws is to provide for the fairness and equality at the sites of the work. Also, greater benefits for employers and employees are given under this Act as the minimum standards have been set and therefore no person can try to opt out from the core standards in any manner whether direct or indirect(workershelp, 2017). Key Sections: The key sections of this Act include Section 2 which states about the application of this Act. Section 4 states about the minimum standards which have been set under this Act. Section 16-20 of this Act talk about the hours of work up till when the employees would have to work at the place of employment (Hoskin Dickie, 2006). Who is responsible: Both the Alberta employees and the employers have the liability to ensure that the provisions of this Act are being upheld and that these are being applied in a fair and an equitable manner. This kind of shared responsibility is important for the enforcement of the standards. Employment Related Situations First situation: Employee A who is made to work for 14 consecutive hours by his employee on the work days without any urgent work. Section to be applied- Section 16(1) would be applied to the present case (Macmillan, 2017). Application of the Section- This section of the Employment Standards Code seeks to state the fact that an employee under this Code could only work for 12 hours consecutively on a work day. Problems: If the provisions of this Act are not followed, then the penalties would be levied on that employer who has failed to pay heed to the provisions of this Act. Second Situation: Employer B is not given any leave, by his employer, even after working for two consecutive weeks. Also his employer do not provide for any pay periods. Section to be applied- In this case, Section 19 of the Employment Standards Code is to be applied. Section 7 would also be applicable to the present situation. Application of the Section- This section states that every employer is to mandatorily give his employee, one day rest in the whole week. For two consecutive weeks of work, the employee is entitled to 2 consecutive days of rest. For three consecutive weeks, there would be a week of 3 consecutive days. Section 7 states that each and every employer must provide a pay period to the employee. This would help in the calculation of the overtime pay and also the wages that are due to an employee and it should not be more than one work month. Problems- If the provisions of this Act are not followed then the employer would have to pay certain penalties. References Alberta. (2016). Employment Standards Tool Kit for Employers. Retrieved on January 17, 2017, from https://work.alberta.ca/, https://work.alberta.ca/documents/employment-standards-toolkit.pdf GlobalWorkplaceInsider. (2013). Upcoming amendments to Albertas employment standards legislation. Retrieved on January 17, 2017, from https://www.globalworkplaceinsider.com/, https://www.globalworkplaceinsider.com/2013/09/upcoming-amendments-to-albertas-employment-standards-legislation/ Government of Alberta. (2012, September 17). Employment Standards Code. Retrieved on January 17, 2017, from https://www.qp.alberta.ca/, https://www.qp.alberta.ca/1266.cfm?page=E09.cfmleg_type=Actsisbncln=9780779744015 Hoskin, O., Dickie, S. (2006). Employment labor in Alberta: Lexology navigator QA. Retrieved on January 17, 2017, from https://www.lexology.com/, https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=6c472d3d-569d-474e-ab1b-9e4c4c9f8b10 Law for Alberta Women. (2015). Employment Standards Code. Retrieved on January 17, 2017, from https://www.lawforalbertawomen.ca/, https://www.lawforalbertawomen.ca/women-and-work/employment-standards-code/ Macmillan, (2017). Employment law in Canada: Provincial and federal regulated employers Alberta, Available at: https://www.mcmillan.ca/files/Employment%20Law%20in%20Alberta%20FINAL.pdf [Accessed: 17 January 2017]. Martinelli, G., Lau, A. (2014, May 27). Challenging the farm work exclusions in the employment standards code. Retrieved on January 17, 2017, from https://ablawg.ca/, https://ablawg.ca/2014/05/27/challenging-the-farm-work-exclusions-in-the-employment-standards-code/ Workershelp. (2017). Employment and labour standards. Retrieved on January 17, 2017, from https://www.workershelp.ca/, https://www.workershelp.ca/employmentstandards.asp