Canadian Payroll Reporter

6 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 News in Brief A look at news, facts and figures shaping the world of payroll professionals Ottawa announces changes to TFW program › OTTAWA — The federal government is making a number of changes to its Temporary Foreign Worker Program in response to criticisms that employers were using the program to hire foreign workers instead of Canadians. Jason Kenney, minister of Employment and Social Development, recently announced the government is restricting access to the program to ensure em- ployers use it only as a last resort to temporarily fill acute labour shortages when qualified Canadian workers are not available. The government is also taking steps to make the program more transparent and to introduce tougher penalties for employers that do not follow the rules. As part of the overhaul, Kenney announced that beginning next spring, Sta- tistics Canada will conduct two new surveys. One will focus on quarterly job vacancies and the other will be an expanded national wage survey that will collect information from 100,000 employers. The following are among the changes Kenney announced to the program: • The government will use wage levels instead of the National Occupational Classification as the main criteria for administering the program since wag- es more accurately reflect occupational skill level and local labour market conditions. • The fee for a labour market impact assessment, which employers need to use the program, will rise from $275 to $1,000 for every temporary foreign worker position an employer requests. • The government is replacing its current assessment tool, called labour market opinions, with a new labour market test that it says is more comprehensive and rigorous. Employers will have to provide more information, including the num- ber of Canadians who applied for the available job, the number of Canadians interviewed and an explanation as to why they did not hire them. • The government is capping the number of low-wage temporary foreign workers who will be allowed to work in the country. Employers with 10 or more employ- ees who apply for a labour market impact assessment will not be allowed to have more than 10 per cent of their workforce made up of low-wage tempo- rary foreign workers. Temporary foreign workers who currently work at job sites that are over the cap will be allowed to con- tinue working there until their existing work permits expire. The government is phasing in this change. As a result, employers currently above the cap that apply for a new labour market impact assessment will be capped at 30 per cent or frozen at their current level, whichever is lower. On July 1, 2015, the gov- ernment will change the cap to 20 per cent. The 10 per cent cap will be fully in place as of July 1, 2016. • The government will not accept applications for the lowest-wage, lowest-skill, entry-level jobs in the food services, accom- modation and retail trade sectors in areas where unemployment is six per cent or higher. • The duration of work permits for low-wage temporary foreign workers will be reduced from two-year to one-year periods. • The government will change annex agreements with provinces and territories so employers that used to bring temporary foreign workers to Canada using these agreements will now have to use the labour market impact assessment. • Employers wanting to hire high-wage temporary foreign workers (with very limited exceptions) will now have to submit transition plans to show how they will increase their efforts to hire Canadians. • The government will increase the number of inspections it carries out so each year it will look at one-quarter of the employers that use the program. • Beginning in the fall, the government will impose fines of up to $100,000 (depending on the severity of the offence) on employers that do not follow the program's rules. For more information on the changes, please refer to the Employment and Social Development Canada website at www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/jobs/foreign_workers/reform/highlights.shtml. Government looking to help informal caregivers › OTTAWA — The federal government has set up a panel of employer representatives to identify ways employers can support employees trying to balance work with caring for an ill or disabled loved one. The government announced its Canadian Employers for Caregivers Plan in the 2014 federal budget. Under the initiative, the government will work with employ- ers to find "cost-effective workplace practices" to help workers who act as informal caregivers. The panel is being chaired by Kim Forgues, vice- president of HR at Home Depot Canada. Average weekly earnings up by 0.5 percent in April: StatsCan › OTTAWA — Average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $932 in April, up 0.5 per cent from $927.49 in March, Statistics Canada re- ports. The March numbers were revised from the pre- viously reported $932.69. On a year-over-year basis, weekly earnings increased 3.3 per cent in April. The increase in weekly earnings during the 12 months to March reflected a number of factors, in- cluding wage growth, changes in the composition of employment by industry, occupation and level of job experience, as well as average hours worked per week. Non-farm payroll employees worked an aver- age of 32.9 hours per week in April, slightly more than the average of 32.8 hours 12 months earlier. ADP wins award › ROSELAND, N.J. — ADP has won a best practices award for its products. Business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan presented ADP with its 2014 North America Product Line Strategy Leadership Award for Human Capital Management in July. The award is based on criteria such as having a broad product line that covers a wide range of HR functions. Credit: Chris Wattie/Reuters The policies should state what the organiza- tion considers to be fraud and what measures it will take to investigate cases of suspected fraud. "It basically tells people that my com- pany is actually going to do something about this," he said. He also recommended employers have employees review and sign off on the com- pany's code of conduct every year as a way of reminding them how an organization ex- pects them to behave. Technology can also help companies deter and detect fraud. "Regular monitoring of In- ternet activity... could be a great way to iden- tify potential schemes," said Nagel. He added that many organizations now inform employees the company has the right to monitor employees' use of employ- er-owned electronic devices, such as cell phones, tablets, laptops and computers. Organizations can also have strong secu- rity and access controls for the technology workers use. He recommends employers re- quire employees to lock down their comput- ers when they are not at their desk. "If you leave your computer for more than one minute and you're not in the area, any- body can come up to your computer, plug in a (USB drive), download sensitive informa- tion about employees and walk away and sell that information to a third party." Nagel said he is developing a tool that will help companies continuously monitor pay- roll for fraud and errors. "What it does is essentially uploads your payroll every time you run payroll and it will look for errors and anomalies and tell you how to investigate those errors and anomalies." The more tools and training that payroll practitioners and employers have, the bet- ter equipped they will be to fight fraud. "My experience as an investigator is that fraud is only limited by the creativity of the fraud- from sCHeMes on page 4 Anti-fraud policies Jason Kenney

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