Mark Thomas, Leah Vosko, Eric Tucker, Mercedes Steedman, Andrea M. Noack, John Grundy, Mary Gellatly, and Lisa Leinveer have published new research on overtime exemptions in Ontario in Labour/Le travail.
In practice, employment standards legislation includes ways in which legislated standards may be avoided, including through exemptions. With a focus on the Ontario Employment Standards Act, this paper develops a case study of exemptions to the Overtime Pay provision of the Act and regulations and examines in closer detail three particular areas in which exemptions apply. Through this study of the Overtime Pay exemption, the system of exemptions is presented as a contradictory approach to the regulation of employment standards that, in effect, reduces coverage, contributes to the avoidance of key legislated standards, and undermines the goal of providing protection for workers in precarious jobs.