unpaid internships

Recent Ministry of Labour blitz finds $140,000 owing to unpaid interns

May 16, 2016 Vey Willetts LLP Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Analytics, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Penalties and Fines, Pensions and Benefits, Recruiting and Hiring, Source Deductions and Reporting, Wages and Compensation

In our article last month, we discussed the growing attention being paid to the issue of unpaid internships in Ontario. Since then the Ontario Ministry of Labour has released the results of a second workplace blitz designed to assess whether employers in the province are in compliance with the requirements of the Employment Standards Act, 2000,

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The unpaid internship: Exploitation or opportunity?

April 18, 2016 Vey Willetts LLP Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Penalties and Fines, Pensions and Benefits, Recruiting and Hiring, Source Deductions and Reporting, Wages and Compensation

The use of unpaid interns has come under increased media and political scrutiny. Fuelled by horror stories of young interns collapsing under extreme workplace pressures, the issue reached the political agenda. In the summer of 2014, the Ontario Ministry of Labour carried out a highly publicized workplace inspection blitz to determine if intern rights were being respected. Rules governing the appropriate use of interns in Ontario are not new. They had been in place long before the summer 2014 blitz. The rules are set out in section 1(2) of the Employment Standards Act.

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Hot tips for summer student workplace supervision, safety and success!

March 17, 2015 Marcia Scheffler Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development, Union Relations

This is the first summer that Ontario employers have new liability and responsibility to summer students who are with them in unpaid co-op or internships. The Occupational Health and Safety Act coverage expanded to unpaid co-op students and learners in work placements, effective November 20, 2014. For employers, this means that unpaid summer co-op students […]

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Internship enforcement update

October 7, 2014 Stringer LLP Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development, Wages and Compensation

As we have blogged in the past, in the second quarter of 2014, the Ministry of Labour conducted an enforcement “blitz,” targeting companies in several sectors with intern programs to determine if those programs were being operated in a manner consistent with the Employment Standards Act.

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HR in the news: From unpaid internships to alcohol testing policies

April 21, 2014 Clear Path Employer Services Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Recruiting and Hiring, Union Relations, Wages and Compensation

It seems a lot of heated HR issues have begun to resurface in the news recently. From the accommodation of medical marijuana to the legality of unpaid internships, these are some issues that have been plaguing HR professionals in recent years.

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Slaw: Ontario’s Ministry of Labour targets employers using unpaid internships

April 10, 2014 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Penalties and Fines, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development, Wages and Compensation

From April to June 2014, the Ontario Ministry of Labour is conducting an employment standards inspection blitz targeting organizations that employ unpaid interns. The goal is to ensure worker rights are protected and enhance employers’ awareness of their responsibilities.

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Three of the most popular articles this week on HRinfodesk

March 27, 2014 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Recruiting and Hiring, Source Deductions and Reporting, Wages and Compensation

Three of the most popular articles this week on HRinfodesk deal with Ontario’s private member’s bill to curtail unpaid internships; statutory pay in lieu and WSIB; and balancing retirement income with disposable income.

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Private member’s bill would curtail unpaid internships

March 17, 2014 Adam Gorley Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development, Wages and Compensation

Opposition MPP Jonah Schein has introduced a private member’s bill to place stricter limits on unpaid internships in Ontario. Bill 170, Employment Standards Amendment Act (Greater Protection for Interns and Vulnerable Workers), 2014, doesn’t seek to eliminate unpaid internships entirely, but rather hopes to make employers more accountable and give interns (and students) more legal clout.

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HRinfodesk poll result and commentary: Unpaid internships – labour standards, human rights questions

August 8, 2013 Adam Gorley Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development, Union Relations, Wages and Compensation

The issue of unpaid work has been a hot topic for quite a while now, and despite efforts by authorities to clarify the legal status, sometimes it seems that employers aren’t understanding it any better. To get a better idea of where our readers stand, we recently asked, Do you have unpaid internships at your organization? Slightly more than 80 percent of respondents said no, they don’t use unpaid interns, while nearly 20 percent said yes, they do. We didn’t ask whether employers are using legal unpaid internships, or whether they know if their internship arrangements are legal, but we’d like to offer our two cents and hopefully help our readers understand what’s legal and what’s not when it comes to unpaid internships.

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Illegal? Exploitative? The truth on unpaid internships

May 27, 2013 Clear Path Employer Services Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Recruiting and Hiring, Wages and Compensation

With university and college students now finished final exams and looking for summer work, it seems fitting that the latest controversy under the spotlight in the news is that of unpaid internships.

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Business perspective on unpaid internships in Canada

August 20, 2012 Occasional Contributors Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development, Wages and Compensation

young people holding up letters to spell "internships"

This is a follow-up post to my previous post on a business perspective on unpaid internships in the United States.This post deals with more of a Canadian business perspective, and when it comes to internships in Canada, the regulations are anything but clear. There are currently no laws in Canada regulating internships specifically, so provincial employment standards acts are the only form of governance. For the most part, internships in Canada are paid, however in some sectors (media, PR, journalism) internships go often unpaid. In the United States, some candidates are actually paying employers for unpaid internships. Luckily in Canada, things haven’t gone that far. However, Canadians are still fairly unaware of what unpaid internships are all about.

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The legality of unpaid internships in Ontario

July 30, 2012 Occasional Contributors Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development, Wages and Compensation

We’re pleased to present lawyer Andrew Langille of Youth and Work on what the law in Ontario says about unpaid internships. Here, Andrew focuses on the impact of unpaid internships on interns themselves, but organizations and businesses that use or hope to use unpaid interns must pay attention. It is crucial to know whether your intern is legally an intern (and therefore not subject to Ontario’s Employment Standards Act), or actually an employee. And the answer might surprise you.

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