TEMPORARY HELP AGENCIES
Hello… welcome to our Ministry of Labour employment standards podcast.
Today, we're going to discuss your employment rights if you are employed as an assignment employee by a temporary help agency.
Work through temporary help agencies has changed over the years. In the 1970s and 1980s, employment through temporary help agencies was mostly in short-term, clerical jobs that lasted a few days or weeks. Temporary help agency assignment employees were called in when regular staff members were away sick or on vacation.
These days, agencies supply employees in a wide range of occupations. An employee of an agency might be assigned to a single client business for several months, or even years. In many cases, agency employees work side-by-side with the staff of an agency's client business, doing the same type of work.
More than 700,000 people in Ontario have temporary jobs, many through temporary help agencies. These agencies provide their employees to client businesses that want staff on a non-permanent basis. There are about 1,000 such agencies currently operating in Ontario.
Where a temporary help agency and person agree, verbally or in writing, that the agency will assign (or try to assign) the person to perform work on a temporary basis for its clients, the agency is the employer of that person and the person is an assignment employee of the agency.
You may be performing work for the client company, however, under the Employment Standards Act, the temporary help agency is your employer - not the client where you are assigned to work. It is the temporary help agency who is responsible for ensuring that all of your employment standards rights are in place.
Generally speaking, if you work for a temporary help agency, you have the same rights as other employees covered by the Employment Standards Act. This includes such rights as minimum wage, public holidays and public holiday pay, limits on hours of work, overtime pay, vacations, and unpaid leaves from work for certain reasons.
We have more detailed information on our website. We'll give you the address at the end of this podcast.
There are also specific rules that apply to assignment employees, temporary help agencies and clients of temporary help agencies.
First, the temporary help agency you work for cannot charge you any fees. The agency cannot charge you a fee for being its employee, or for helping you to find work. It cannot charge you a fee for giving you information or advice on how to write a resume, or prepare for an interview.
It cannot charge you these fees, even if you accept the services.
If your agency has assigned you to work for a client, and the client decides at some later point to employ you directly, your agency cannot prevent this.
Your agency cannot charge the client a fee for hiring you directly either - unless the fee is charged within the six-month period that starts on the first day of your first assignment with the client. As well, the agency cannot charge you a fee for accepting direct employment with its client, no matter how long you have been working at the client's workplace.
If the client decides to give you a job reference, the agency cannot stop that.
The agency must also give you information about itself, and about any client you are assigned to.
When you become an assignment employee of an agency, the agency must give you an information sheet outlining your employment standards rights. If your language is one other than English, the temporary help agency must provide this document to you in that language, if it is available from the Ministry of Labour. The agency must give you this information in writing as soon as possible after you become an assignment employee.
When the agency offers you an assignment with one of its clients, it must give you:
• the client's legal name, business name and contact information;
• the wage rate or commission and benefits (if any);
• the hours of work;
• a general description of the work;
• the estimated term of the assignment (if known);
• and, the pay period and pay day.
This information may be given to you verbally when you are offered the assignment. However, the agency must provide this information in writing as soon as possible.
And, finally, if you ask about your employment standards rights - or ask that you be given your rights - neither the temporary help agency nor the client can take any action against you, including ending your assignment.
This has been an overview of your rights as an assignment employee for a temporary help agency.
You can find more detailed information on our website.
Just go to Ontario.ca - forward slash - temphelp- that's t-e-m-p-h-e-l-p- … one word.
That's Ontario.ca - forward slash - temphelp- that's t-e-m-p-h-e-l-p- … one word.
Or, you can call our Information Centre at 1-800-531-5551. That's 1-800-531-5551.
That's it for this Ministry of Labour employment standards podcast.
Thank you for listening.