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http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnist ... ge-outrage

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WALLACE: Why the Fiberals are faking their minimum wage outrage


James Wallace

Published:
January 9, 2018

Updated:
January 9, 2018 2:07 PM EST

Nothing takes the mob’s mind off one’s own indefensible and appalling misconduct quite like shaming some other villain.

Ontario Labour Minister Kevin Flynn tried to do just that Monday in a stunning, self-serving farce of a press conference where he threatened, bullied and promised to publicly out Ontario businesses for wrongs they haven’t, and are wholly unlikely, to commit.

A reality check to follow, first the latest news.

Flynn called a press conference Monday in the wake of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s adversarial tweet last week directed at a Cobourg Tim Hortons franchise owned by the children of the donut empire’s billionaire co-founders, who planned to claw back paid meals and other benefits from staff there in response to the Liberals hiking the minimum wage to $14-an-hour this year, and $15 next.

Wynne tweeted how “upset” she was and said if franchise owner Ron Joyce Jr. “wants to pick a fight I urge him to leave his employees out of it. I’m right here,” then publicly called his purported cost-saving plan “the act of a bully.”


Several other Timmies subsequently suggested they might follow Joyce Jr’s lead, and one Tim Hortons in Scarborough allegedly told staff they planned to ban tipping, or would require all tips to go straight into the till, which isn’t allowed under provincial law.

That may have been the straw that motivated Wynne and Flynn to declare war on every miserly miscreant running a business in the province.

“You can’t break the law in the province of Ontario,” Flynn fumed Monday. “You have to pay the minimum wage.”

He suggested “some employers are abandoning the spirit of this legislation, and some may even be doing more than that,” but didn’t bother to elaborate.

“The stories we’ve all heard over the past week have not only been disappointing but, quite frankly, they’ve made the premier, myself and others in this province angry,” he said.

“For some businesses to take it out on their workers, however, is completely unacceptable,” he said. “And it’s simply wrong. It’s the act of bullies that has no place in this province.”

In response to the villainy perceived at Tims and elsewhere, Flynn vowed to hire up to 175 inspectors to crack down on businesses to ensure they implement the Liberal government’s new $14-an-hour minimum wage.

And he promised to publicly shame and name those who violate new labour rules.

Now for the reality check.

No business is refusing to pay the new minimum wage or suggesting they’ll break the law. They are looking for ways to legally offset what the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis describes as “a $23-billion cost challenge over two years” for Ontario businesses and an estimate by Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office that 50,000 people could lose their jobs here if the accelerated minimum wage hikes proceeds.

The Coburg Tim Hortons isn’t required under Ontario law to pay staff during lunch breaks. They had been doing so and told staff they were ending that benefit and others to offset the new wage hikes. The suggestion this violates the “spirit” of the new minimum wage is ridiculous, self-serving hyperbole from a government that’s had 14 years to help low-income workers and decided, virtually months before an election, to force businesses to help bankroll their abysmal election prospects.

One Tim Hortons franchise made a dumb proposal to put tips in the till, probably because they didn’t know any better. This sort of thing happens routinely and is routinely dealt with by the labour ministry. It’s not a conspiracy.

If Flynn makes good on his ridiculous threat to use up to 175 inspectors (that may include 100 new ones) it would by our rough, conservative calculation easily cost the government $10.5 million or more annually (175 x a modest $60,000 annual civil service salary) to police, among other things, its minimum wage law.

Wynne and Flynn are the real villains in this tedious tale, yet another example of a politically and morally bankrupt Liberal government resorting to bullying, the politics of division and virtue shaming to save their own skins.

Shame on them.

And shame on you if you let them fool you.

[martin14]

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

$1:

In response to the villainy perceived at Tims and elsewhere, Flynn vowed to hire up to 175 inspectors to crack down on businesses to ensure they implement the Liberal government’s new $14-an-hour minimum wage.

Aww, ain't that sweet, the Wynnndbagggg Ddddbaggg has already spent the extra tax revenue
by hiring a bunch of his friends.


More government money for everyone !

[herbie]

Walmart to raise its starting wage to $11

$13.75 CDN

[BeaverFever]

martin14 martin14:

PluggyRug PluggyRug:

$1:

In response to the villainy perceived at Tims and elsewhere, Flynn vowed to hire up to 175 inspectors to crack down on businesses to ensure they implement the Liberal government’s new $14-an-hour minimum wage.

Aww, ain't that sweet, the Wynnndbagggg Ddddbaggg has already spent the extra tax revenue
by hiring a bunch of his friends.


More government money for everyone !

Hiring friends? These are relatively junior jobs open to the public. i don’t know why you’re so compelled to invent lies while freaking out over the appropriate use the f words like “flee”

Speaking of inventions, The article is more conservative idiot fake news. The 175 inspectors were announced last year along with the other workplace changes, they are not “in response” to recent complaints about employers

Which you can read in this October release

https://news.ontario.ca/mol/en/2017/10/ ... ading.html

Or this article from July

https://hicksmorley.com/2017/06/07/bill ... employers/

Why are conservatives so dishonest all the time?

[martin14]

So, not only do you not know what flee means, you don't know what vowed means either.

Good you see you displaying new levels of ignorance every day.

Why don't you tell us what your first language is..

[PluggyRug]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

Speaking of inventions, The article is more conservative idiot fake news. The 175 inspectors were announced last year along with the other workplace changes, they are not “in response” to recent complaints about employers

Which you can read in this October release

https://news.ontario.ca/mol/en/2017/10/ ... ading.html

Or this article from July

https://hicksmorley.com/2017/06/07/bill ... employers/

Why are conservatives so dishonest all the time?

You do realise that this "preemptive" move was made by the Wynne government knowing full well there would be some backlash.

Does not change any facts that this is an election year or that the Liberals are being dishonest. It's just another tax grab from the financially stupid bunch at Queens's Park.

[BeaverFever]

Raising the minimum wage is a tax grab?

[CharlesAnthony]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

Raising the minimum wage is a tax grab?

No. It is a neo-con ruse that pleases the cannon fodder.

Raising the minimum wage is an act of economic war.

[BeaverFever]

martin14 martin14:

So, not only do you not know what flee means, you don't know what vowed means either.

Good you see you displaying new levels of ignorance every day.

Why don't you tell us what your first language is..

What the hell are you trying to say now Troll?

[bootlegga]

herbie herbie:

Walmart to raise its starting wage to $11

$13.75 CDN

From the same article:

$1:

Meanwhile, the company will take a separate charge as it shutters more than 60 of its wholesale Sam's Club stores across the country.

And from another:

$1:

Walmart is expanding its "Scan & Go" technology to an additional 100 locations across the U.S., the retailer announced Tuesday, playing into a growing trend of companies giving consumers the option to shop their stores without interacting with a cashier.

...

That will put the company ahead of Walmart, which anticipates having its "Scan & Go" service at fewer than 200 stores by the end of 2018.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/09/between ... lainternal

I'm sure once they've got it all figured out, it will come north of the border too. Bye bye cashiers...

[herbie]

And you think that's not going to happen even if they cut the minimum wage in half?
FFS the WalMart here put the self checkouts in back when the wage was under $8, saw them at supermarkets years before that.
Did your bank fees GO DOWN because they put in those teller machines in the 90s?
Did they put in those self run order kiosks to save you money?
When GM got a 2 tier contract with a $14 start wage years ago, did they get rid of the robots and hire more hand assemblers?

[Thanos]

If they're anything like the auto-check outs at CoOp they'll end up being replaced by different machines three times in five years and still be so frustrating to use that it'll be faster to get in the regular line-up behind granny and her hundred items instead of opting for the robot experience.

[BRAH]

Good luck finding help at Home Depot.

[BeaverFever]

I like the self-serve checkouts, I use them whenever I can. I suspect they’re not cheaper than labour however because you never see them in the discount grocery stores, only in the more expensive stores and big box chains

[BRAH]

Thinking self checkouts are based on store locations.