EDMONTON — The Alberta government says it will hire more staff to enforce labour standards.
Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk says employee complaints across the province have skyrocketed and are up by more than 1,000 from last fiscal year.
“It is the employer’s attitude that causes the breaches and attitudes are something you find in all industries,” Lukaszuk said Wednesday.
The minister says the increase in complaints is not necessarily because more offences are happening, but likely because more people are coming forward after the government launched a 24/7 online complaint system back in December.
To respond to those complaints, six new employment standards officers are being hired and the use of third-party auditors will increase.
The minister says the issues are not specific to any industry and are occurring in all parts of the province. Lukaszuk says the majority of complaints relate to things such as unpaid overtime and maternity leave.
The government is also creating a new handbook for employers, which the minister says is intended to take away excuses that companies didn’t know they were breaking the law.
“This guide very clearly spells out how to calculate hours, how to calculate overtime, how to do maternity leave,” he said.
Violating companies will be audited and forced to pay what it owed, Lukaszuk said.
“At the end of the day you will pay the worker what is owed to the worker.”
The Alberta Liberals say they would like see the province go a step further by charging more employers for breaking the law.
The province has no plans to fine offenders.