Fix labor discrepancy in HOS rules, private carriers tell ministry
TORONTO -- There is no need for two sets of rules to govern hours of work for provincially regulated truck drivers. That's the message the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada recently delivered to the Ontario Ministry of Labour, which has since recognized that there are overlapping jurisdictions that control hours of service for various truck drivers in the province. Some provincially regulated carriers are finding out that when Transport Canada drafted the HOS standard, it seemingly didn't bother consulting any of the provincial labor ministries. In Ontario, specifically, that has resulted in a conflict between the Employment Standards Act and the Highway Traffic Act. As Today's Trucking first reported following the PMTC annual conference last year (see Related Stories link below for more), private carriers, since most are provincially regulated, are subject to the ESA -- which limits working hours to 12 hours per day (with at least 11 hours rest); 44 hours in a week before overtime pay and requires a permit for over 48 hours -- rather than the new federal HOS rules, which allow a 14-hour work shift (13 hours driving time and 8 hours rest), and up to 70 hours per week. In order to ask drivers to work more than 48 hours, companies must get written permission from the employee or union as well as acquire a permit from the Ministry of Labour, which usually doesn't grant more than 60 hours a week. Provincially regulated for-hire carriers also fall under the ESA. However, Section 18 of the Act exempts "highway transport" carriers (truckers that haul beyond a 5 km radius) from the same limits private fleets are bound by. The PMTC is concerned about the overtime disparity in the ESA between private and for-hire carriers, and wants private truck drivers to be exempted from the ESA as well. "The rationale for our view is that a great deal of research and effort went in to developing the federal HoS rules (which were mirrored in the HTA), while there is no known rationale for the hours of work rules in the Employment Standards Act," says PMTC President Bruce Richards in a recent communiqué to members. "The discrepancy is unfair and discriminatory to employers in the private trucking sector and we made a specific request that truck drivers be treated equally when it comes to overtime thresholds."