The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) is calling out Ontario Premier Doug Ford for failing to enforce the rights of non-union workers.
New data on employment law prosecutions obtained by the OFL and Data Shows (a Substack by journalist Tom Parkin) reveal a dramatic falloff under Ford’s Progressive Conservative government. Between April 2024 and March 2025, only 150 charges were laid against employers for serious violations of the Employment Standards Act (ESA), the legislation that sets minimum conditions of employment for workers across the province.
These 150 prosecutions are markedly lower than the more than 1,500 charges levelled in 2015 under the previous Ontario Liberal government. In 2020, the number of prosecutions was even lower, at just 56.
What’s more, 37 of the 150 charges laid last year (25 per cent) were withdrawn because of court backlogs and other processing delays. (According to the Supreme Court of Canada’s Jordan limits, criminal cases in provincial courts must be tried within 18 months or be dropped.)
According to Data Shows’ figures, prosecutions of employers for occupational health and safety (OHS) violations have also dropped considerably over the past several years under the Conservatives.
Whereas 3,527 charges were laid in the Ontario Court of Justice in 2016 under the previous government, only 1,622 charges were brought forward from April 2024 to March 2025. Though charges are up slightly over the previous two years, they are down considerably...
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