What Young Workers Should Know

Arnold is 16 years old.  He is a full time student in high school, but he wanted to earn some money in the last Christmas break. He applied to different restaurants, hotels and stores to get a job. Finally, he was hired as a server in a Mediterranean restaurant during his December break from school.  This restaurant does not serve alcohol.

Initially, his boss said to him that the wage for his job would be $8.50 per hour. He could also earn tips, but they would be part of his minimum wage amount.

He worked six hours per day and he usually took thirty minutes for his lunch break. One week after Arnold started working, the manager said to him that the student employees were only allowed to take fifteen minutes for lunch break.

Although Arnold felt that his job conditions were not fair, he continued working on the weekends after Christmas break. However, he has not received his wages from April and May.

Arnold does not know if there is a law that regulates this issue.  He wants to know if the labor conditions in his job are fair, and if he will be able to recover his wages for the months of April and May.

LEGAL INFORMATION

The Employment Standards Act (ESA) sets out the rights and responsibilities of both employees and employers in Ontario workplaces.

Young workers have the same rights as other employees in most Ontario workplaces under the ESA.  It is important to know that the minimum age for working in Ontario is 14 years in most types of workplaces.

Regulations specify higher minimum ages for certain types of work and workplaces. For example, working in the kitchen at a restaurant requires you to be at least fifteen years old.  You also have to be at least fifteen to work in laundries, shipping and receiving areas in grocery stores, automotive service garages, produce and meat preparation areas and warehouses.

Was Arnold receiving a legal wage in his job?

Minimum wage is the lowest hourly wage an employer can pay employees, whether they are full-time or part-time.

No matter how they are paid, employers must pay most employees, including young workers, at least the minimum wage. Tips or gratuities are not considered wages and will not be considered in determining whether an employee is receiving at least minimum wage.  This means that Arnold’s boss was breaking the law if he deducted Arnold’s tips from his minimum wage.

The minimum wage rate for a certain job can depend on what kind of work an employee is doing and how old the employee is.  In Ontario, there is a general minimum wage rate that applies to most employees.  


There is also a student minimum wage rate that applies to many students under the age of 18.

Students must be paid at least the student minimum wage if they are under 18 and they:

• work no more than 28 hours a week when school is in session, or
• work during a school holiday (for example, March break, Christmas break, summer holidays)

Students who work more than 28 hours a week when school is in session are entitled to the general minimum wage.

General minimum wage rate is $10.25 per hour.

Student minimum wage rate is $9.60 per hour. This is Arnold´s situation and this is the minimum amount he should be paid for each hour he works at the restaurant.

There are some exceptions to the minimum wage requirements.  For example:

• If you are participating in a high school “co-op” or work experience program authorized by the school board that operates your school
• If you are a college or university student performing work through your school program
• If you are training for certain occupations such as architecture, law, professional engineering, medicine, optometry
• If you are a student employed to instruct or supervise children and a person employed as a student at a camp for children (like a camp counselor)

How much time can Arnold take for lunch?

Most employees, including young workers, may not work longer than five hours in a row without getting a 30-minute eating period. If Arnold and his employer agree, the 30-minute eating period may be taken as two breaks within each five-consecutive-hour work period.  Meal breaks are usually unpaid.

If Arnold is working a shift that is less than five hours long, he does not have to receive any lunch break.  So, for example, if he works a “split” from 11 am until 3 pm and then from 5 pm until 8 pm, he does not have to receive a lunch break.

How can Arnold get his pay from April and May?

Since Arnold’s boss violated the Employment Standards Act, Arnold can contact the Ministry of Labour to file a complaint.  Arnold can start this process by contacting the Employment Standards Information Centre at 416-326-7160 or 1-800-531-5551.  They will be able to give him information about the Employment Standards Act and filing a complaint.  In the complaint process, his complaint will be investigated, and his employer can be ordered to pay him wages.  Arnold should keep evidence that he worked during this time and that his employer didn't pay him.  An example of evidence would be a copy of a time sheet where he signed in and out, or an email giving him his work schedule for the week.

If Arnold decides to file a complaint, he must do this within 6 months of the date he was supposed to be paid.  So, for pay he should have received on March 14, he must file his complaint by September 14.   Sometimes, this 6 month period can be extended if an employer violated the act multiple times, but at least one of those times happened in the past six months.

For more information about the rights and rules on young workers, check out this website from the Ministry of Labour.

This post was written by PLE Team volunteers Lina Maria Sanchez (a Columbian lawyer who has recently come to Canada) and UofT law student Leora Jackson. Legal info was reviewed by JFCY. 

Video: Leaving Home

Check out this new video that deals with legal issues that can arise when youth leave home.  

Click on the link below to learn about the legal and practical issues that Terence must consider as he decides whether to leave home and live on his own at the age of 16. 

To read more about leaving home legal issues in Ontario, check out this JFCY pamphlet, as well as our past blog posts here and here.

A special thanks to the volunteers from the YouTube Subcommitte of the PLE Team for their efforts in making this video: Arif, Terence, Lucas, Tracy, Cydney, and Chrsitine, as well as JFCY staff lawyer Andrea.

To view the JFCY YouTube channel click here.

Looking for rental housing - Human Rights and Residential Tenancies

Scenario:

When Lukie was 16, she moved out of her mother’s home, where she had been experiencing abuse.  While she spent a couple of months staying with her friend Brian’s family, she was soon ready to move out on her own, and she began looking for a place.  Lukie qualified to receive Ontario Works, which is social assistance that can be available to youth in special circumstances, and she has now begun to receive monthly cheques.  She is also looking for work. (Check out our earlier post about leaving home here.)

What important things should Lukie know when she looks for a place?  Can a landlord refuse to rent to Lukie because she is only 16, or because she is receiving money from Ontario Works?

Protection against discrimination in housing: Ontario’s Human Rights Code

Ontario’s Human Rights Code is a law that makes it illegal to discriminate against an individual based on certain grounds.  In plainer language, this means that in certain areas (like housing, or education), a person cannot be refused services or treated badly just because of certain characteristics relating to their identity.  These characteristics, or “grounds” include things like age, race, and disability.

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When Lukie is searching for a place to live, she is protected against discrimination by the Code.  Usually, the Code only applies to people who are 18 or older.  However, in the case of housing, it also extends to people who are 16 or older and who are not living with their parents.  This means that landlords can’t treat her application differently or refuse to rent to her because she’s too young, and they think she’ll be too noisy or not clean enough because of her age.  The Code also forbids landlords from treating tenants or potential tenants differently because they are on social assistance, like Ontario Works.

The landlord is allowed to ask Lukie some questions in order to decide if she will be a good tenant, like her rental history or credit references.  However, the fact that Lukie has no rental history shouldn’t count against her.  Rent-to-income ratios (how much the rent is compared to how much Lukie earns each month) cannot be used to decide whether Lukie will be accepted as a tenant.  The landlord can also ask for a guarantor on Lukie’s lease.  This is a person who promises to pay the rent if Lukie can’t afford it.  However, the landlord can only ask for a guarantor if they ask all of their tenants for one – they can’t single out Lukie because of her age or how much money she makes.

Once Lukie has rented an apartment, she is also protected by the Code.  The landlord can’t refuse to do repairs and can’t treat her unfairly just because she is young.  The only exception to this is that the Code doesn’t apply to tenants who are sharing a kitchen or a bathroom with the landlord – Lukie should watch out for this when she is looking for a place.

To learn more about Human Rights and Rental Housing, check out the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s ELearning module.

Legal Protection of Tenants: the Residential Tenancies Act

In addition to human rights protection, when Lukie rents an apartment, she will become a tenant.  Tenants are protected by a law called the Residential Tenancies Act.  This Act contains rules about what rights and responsibilities both landlords and tenants have in relation to rental units (like apartments).  These rules can become very important to Lukie if, for example, she has a major repair problem in her apartment and the landlord refuses to fix it, or if the landlord is trying to raise the rent more than once a year.

Most rental units are covered by the Residential Tenancies Act.  However, some are not.  When Lukie is looking for a unit, she should think about whether her unit is covered by the Act.  Places that aren’t covered by the Act include co-op housing, units where the landlord and tenant share a bathroom or kitchen and temporary housing like motels or bed & breakfasts.  If Lukie sublets an apartment, which means that she rents it from another tenant, her relationship will be with the other tenant and not with the original landlord.  This could make her protection under the Act more complicated.  If Lukie moves into non-profit or public housing, or to a newer building (built after 1998, or not used for residential purposes before 1991), some of the rules in the Act about rent do not apply to her.

To learn more about the Residential Tenancies Act, check out this information from the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).  To learn more about the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants, read their Information for New Tenants.  You can also learn more about rental housing from this guide by CLEO.

This blog post was written by JFCY volunteer Leora Jackson.  Leora is a UofT law student who is currently working for the summer at Downtown Legal Services, where she represents clients in cases involving rental housing legal issues. 

Sex and Booze on Prom Night: Legal Issues

Scenario

Andrew just turned 20 years old and graduated from high school this week.  This Saturday he is going to prom with his 14-year-old girlfriend, Maria, who is in grade 9. Andrew and Maria have been dating for about six months and Maria has decided that she would like to lose her virginity to Andrew at prom.

On prom night, Andrew’s parents are not home. Andrew grabs several of the beers from the fridge and puts them in his backpack.

Once he arrives at prom, Andrew gives several of the beers to his friends to drink.  These friends are all under age 19. His girlfriend Maria also grabs a beer from Andrew’s backpack and mixes it with her pop. She drinks the alcoholic beverage without the teachers noticing. 

Andrew and Maria are having fun at prom and dancing to the music. They decide to sneak into the washroom to have sex.  Luckily no teachers come into the washroom but a couple of students walk in and then run out in embarrassment.

Will Andrew and Maria face any legal repercussions from their actions on prom night?

LEGAL INFORMATION:

Sexual Activity and the Age of Consent

The age of consent refers to the age at which a young person can legally consent to sexual activity. All sexual activity without consent, regardless of age, is a criminal offence. 

Whether to consent to sex is always your decision. The Canadian law requires that all people participating in sexual activity must give their own consent: you decide whether you want to be involved in any kind of sexual activity, from kissing and touching to intercourse. 

However, the law sets some limits on that, so that it is illegal if you are below a certain age to be sexually involved with certain other people. This means that if you are too young to consent to sex with a particular person, that older person could be charged with a criminal offence. 

The general age of consent for sexual activity in Canada is 16 years. This means that if you are 16 or older, you can consent to sex with anyone older than you.

The Criminal Code provides "close in age" or "peer group" exceptions whereby a 14 or 15 year old can consent to sexual activity with a partner as long as the partner is less than five years older and there is no relationship of trust, authority or dependency or any other exploitation of the young person. 


A similar exception exists for 12 and 13 year-olds: they can consent to sexual activity with a partner who is less than two years older than them.

In all of these cases, however, if you are under 18, you cannot legally consent to sex with someone who is in a position of trust or authority over you (like your teacher, swim coach, Pastor). That person could be charged with a criminal offence.

In this prom scenario, because Maria is only 14 and Andrew is six years older than her, any sexual activity between them is illegal. This includes kissing and sexual touching. Andrew could face serious punishments for this as a regular sexual assault (see Criminal Code section 271) or the child-specific criminal charge of sexual interference or invitation to sexual touching (see Criminal Code section151 and 152).

For more info on the legal age of consent for sexual activity, check out JFCY’s YouTube video here, and the Government ofCanada’s website on this issue.

Underage consumption of alcohol

Maria is too young to legally consume alcohol.  According to ss.30(8) of the Liquor Licence Act,  it is illegal for a person under the age of 19 to have, consume, attempt to purchase or otherwise obtain alcohol. The only exception to this prohibition is where parents provide alcohol to their own children, at home with parental supervision.

Andrew is also in violation of the Liquor Licence Act for knowingly providing his underage friends with alcohol.

Both Maria and  Andrew may be charged under the Liquor Licence Act and be made to appear in Provincial Offences Court.

Sex on school property

Depending on the school’s Code of Conduct, the school principal may decide to sanction Maria for illegally consuming alcohol and having sex on school property. It is possible that she could be suspended.  (To read more about suspension, check out JFCY’s legal info pamphlet. 

Since Andrew has already graduated, the school can't suspend him but they could make a report to the police and refuse to let him back onto the school property in the future.

This scenario was written by PLE Team volunteer Tracy Chen, a joint LLB/MBA student at York/Osgoode.  The legal info was written by JFCY summer law student Robin McNamara (UofT) and reviewed by a JFCY lawyer. 

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Photo sources: 

Dress - http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/style/sns-prom-bad-dresses-pictures,0,3304913.photogallery

People drinking: http://www.bcmj.org/blog/raise-glass-new-canadian-alcohol-guidelines-take-break-tomorrow

G2 License Rules

Scenario

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Naomi (age 17) is very excited that she has just recently passed her G2 driver’s test! Although she was grateful that she had had the opportunity to drive as much as possible with her G1, she thinks it is liberating to finally be able to drive on her own without her Mom or Dad in the passenger’s seat.

Without having her parents in the car, Naomi will finally be able to have the independence to drive to school, to the mall, and to the parties her friends throw every weekend, as long as she is back by the curfew her parents have established for her. Although having her G2 will allow Naomi to have some freedom, she is confused about the restrictions that seem to be in place regarding those who hold a G2 license.

One Friday, Naomi is at a house party her friend Kelly is hosting. Naomi arrives at 10:30 pm and everyone is drinking alcohol. Naomi decides to have one beer. [Please see the JFCY blog for issues related to alcohol. Please also read the newsletter that discusses houseparties. Underage drinking is illegal in Canada, and the age for legally drinking alcohol in Ontario is 19.] 

Just after midnight, Naomi decides she needs to leave to make it home in time for her 12:30 curfew. She decides to drive her friends Laura and James home, who live only a couple streets away from her. As she is driving home, she accidentally drives through a stop sign she hadn’t seen while going 35 kilometres over the speed limit. Much to her dismay, a police car had spotted Naomi’s driving offences and pulls her over.

Naomi is terrified. She has never been stopped by the police, and is afraid that on top of her traffic violations she has also violated the restrictions placed on her G2 license.

Legal Information on G2 licenses:

The legal information deals with the G2 License rules in Ontario. (There are also possible criminal charges but they will not be addressed in this post.)

The G2 License rules come from regulations under the Highway Traffic Act, specifically the Regulation called Driver’s Licenses, which sets out most of the rules regarding G2 licenses.

Alcohol consumption

While driving with a G2 license, a driver of any age is not allowed to consume any alcohol before driving.  Also, all drivers under the age of 21 (regardless of whether they have their full license) are not allowed to consume alcohol before driving.

The penalties for driving with alcohol in your system when under 21 or with a G2 can range from $60 to $500 upon conviction, along with a suspension of up to 30 days for a first offence. As well, there can be a 24 hour road side suspension of a license even before a conviction.

To learn more on drinking and driving under the G2 license. Click here.

Passengers

Naomi may also be violating the rules on number of passengers allowed while driving with a G2 license. During the day, the number of passengers is limited to the number of working seatbelts. However, at night the rules are more restrictive.

If Naomi has had her G2 license for less than six months and is aged 19 and under, she cannot carry a passenger aged 19 and under between midnight and 5 a.m. After the first six months, G2 drivers aged 19 and under cannot carry more than three passengers aged 19 and under between midnight and 5 a.m.

These restrictions do not apply to a G2 driver aged 19 and under if the G2 driver is accompanied by a G class driver in the front seat, or the passengers are immediate family members.

Since Naomi has violated the rules around passenger numbers she will be subject to a suspension as outlined in the Novice Driver Escalating Sanction Scheme. (see below)

How do you get convicted for a G2-type offence?

    

G2-type offences are NOT criminal offences.  They are “provincial offences”. If someone is caught committing a G2-type offence they can be charged.  The charging process starts when a person (the defendant) is given a certificate of offence (kind of like a ticket) by a provincial offences officer, which can include a police officer and a municipal offences officer. The details for these proceedings can be found in the Provincial Offences Act. The authority for the application to G2 offences is found in the regulation under the act, Proceedings Commenced by a Certificate of Offence.

Where a provincial offences officer proceeds in this manner, he or she must serve the  certificate of offence on the defendant within 30 days of the alleged offence. The officer must then file the certificate of offence in the court office as soon as possible after service of the office notice or summons. It is open to the defendant to plead in one of three ways: not guilty, guilty “with representations”, or guilty.  If they plead guilty then they would pay the set fine, which is sometimes written onto the ticket. If the person does nothing within 15 days of service of the offence notice, then they are deemed not to dispute the charge and a conviction is registered.

The Novice Driver Sanction Scheme

As outlined on the OntarioMinistry of Transportation website,

Effective August 1, 2010, novice or hybrid drivers (drivers that hold a novice license and full license, e.g., G) will be subject to Novice Driver Escalating Sanctions. These sanctions will apply if, within a five year period, you:

• are convicted of violating any of the graduated licensing conditions;

The Novice Driver Escalating Sanctions are as follows:

• 30-day licence suspension for the first occurrence;
• 90-day licence suspension for the second occurrence; and
• Novice licence cancellation for the third occurrence. Upon a third occurrence, your novice driver’s licence will be cancelled and any time discount earned, time credited or fees paid would be forfeited. You must re-apply to the graduated licensing program by passing a vision and knowledge test and paying all licensing fees. After you pass these tests, you will enter Level One and get a Class G1 licence. You must serve all the Level One and Level Two waiting periods and start as a new driver. You would need to take a beginner driver education course to qualify for a time discount.

To read more on the G2 license restrictions, visit the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

If you are a youth in Ontario and have legal questions about this issue, please contact a lawyer at JFCY at 416-920-1633, or toll-free at 1-866-999-5329.  

Thanks to Inez Leutenegger, a PLE Team volunteer for writing this scenario for this post. Inez is currently a paralegal student. Legal information written by JFCY summer student Jeremy Ozier and JFCY volunteer Sarah Mehta Alexander. Legal information was reviewed by JFCY.