Ontario Ministry of Labour v. United Independent Operators Ltd. 2011 ONCA 33
The Ontario Court of Appeal faced the question whether a labour broker for true independent contractors were included in the definition of “Employer” for the purposes of the Occupational Health and Safety Act of Ontario (“OHSA”).
The government had prosecuted the contractor for failing to establish a Joint Health and Safety Committee. The prosecution had been dismissed at the Provincial Court level and at one level of appeal below the OCA. The dismissal was on the basis that the contractor was not an employer, and the workers not “regularly employed” and as such not required to establish a Joint Health and Safety Committee under the legislation.
If the case had been at the Labour Board, it was clear that the workers would not be considered “regularly employed”.
The OHSA has an exclusive definition – “means” – so the courts below applied a narrow traditional employment definition as at common law.
The OCA overturned all of this, based on the fact that the legislation was a “remedial public welfare statute” and thus subject to generous interpretation to advance the purpose of the statute.
In refusing to require a “traditional employment relationship” the OCA took a “purposive”, “remedial” and “contextual” approach, and applied the “plain meaning” of the words “regularly employed” in order to do “no violence” to the interpretation, but rather to seek an interpretation which “promotes worker safety”.
The case is interesting in that it gives the remedial interpretation one would expect to see with Human rights legislation. The courts have long defined Human Rights legislation as “quasi-constitutional” and thus on a higher plane than any other legislation but for the Constitution.
Without saying so, the court seems to apply the reasoning from the several SCC cases setting out the importance of work as a core value of our society. Safe working conditions were placed at a somewhat higher plane – almost equivalent to fair working conditions in terms of Human Rights.