50 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
FEATURE
HAVING A JOB,
going to the office, really used to mean some-
thing. It meant getting dressed and going to a desk or work station,
where you were surrounded by employees of the same company. It
meant collecting a regular paycheque and automatically contrib-
uting to Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan. It
meant getting benefits, overtime, parental leave, a pension and, if
things didn't work out, severance pay. A job was something you did
five days a week, 48 or so of the year, until you retired.
ese are quaint notions for Canadians who have felt the impact
of technology, trade, globalization and a host of other factors on
the workplace. People now work flexible hours. ey work from
an office, home, café or really anywhere they please. Many are en-
gaged through employment contracts. ey bring personal devices
into the office to work and company devices home to play. In short,
the lines that used to define our workplace — and separate internal
from external, dependent from independent, and employee from
contractor — have blurred.
You can even find people today who have been on contracts for
years, working side by side with full-time employees. Either catego-
ry can just as easily work from home at nine o'clock at night as from
their desk at nine o'clock in the morning, allowing companies to
cut costs by relying more heavily on less expensive, and sometimes
more efficient, employment arrangements such as telecommuting.
OUTDATED LAWS
HAVE CREATED A CLASS
OF UNDEFINED WORKERS
WITH UNDEFINED RIGHTS.
HOW LEGISLATORS
RESPOND WILL HAVE
SEVERE CONSEQUENCES
FOR BUSINESSES RELIANT
ON FLEXIBLE LABOUR
BY SANDRA RUBIN
ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERTO CIGNA
EMPLOYEE?
What's an
