A Sudbury contractor has received a slap on the wrist from the Commissioner of Canada Elections.
In a Nov. 17 news release, the commissioner said it has entered into a compliance agreement with William Day Construction of Sudbury for failing to pay employees for the time off work necessary to enable them to have three consecutive hours to vote during the 2015 fall federal election.
On Oct. 19, 2015, 27 employees working for Willian Day Construction at a Timmins work site were allowed by their supervisor to leave work at 6:30 p.m., 30 minutes before the end of their scheduled shift, but he informed them they would not paid for that time off the job site.
That’s a big no-no under Section 133 of the Canada Elections Act.
Under the act, if an employee's hours of work do not allow for those three consecutive hours on polling day, the employer must - without making any deductions from the employee's pay - grant the time for voting that is necessary to provide those three consecutive hours.
The commissioner said the company has cooperated with their investigation and has “promptly paid” those employees for the half-hour of time off that was provided to them.
William Day Construction has no prior history of non-compliance.
The compliance agreement was entered into on Nov. 8.
The Commissioner of Canada Elections is the independent officer responsible for ensuring compliance with, and enforcement of, the Canada Elections Act and the federal Referendum Act.
A compliance agreement is a voluntary agreement between the commissioner and the person (the contracting party) in which they agree to terms and conditions that the commissioner considers necessary to ensure compliance with the Act.
According to the commissioner, the company will develop and adopt a policy and communicate it to supervisors and employees, and agrees to post a notice – satisfactory to the commissioner – within 30 days of the receipt of a copy of an agreement signed by the commissioner.
The notice must be posted prominently on the first page of its website for 30 days.
The commissioner states an admission of responsibility does not constitute a criminal conviction and does not create a criminal record for the contracting party.
But in order to maintain transparency, the compliance agreement is made public.
