According to Jaimie Rand’s employment contract, there are some lawful arguments involved in it. One of the arguments is about the increase in compensation. For any employee, if the job position is being changed to the next level, the wages also head to the next level as per the Employment Standards Act. But in the case of Jaimie, though he has applied for the progress in the job (promotion) and fostered to the job position of School Chair at Queen Elizabeth Private School, his wages reminded the same.
Another issue is that, when Jaimie has got hired initially, his agreement had consisted of some terms which described that, he would be employed in the position of Level 1 teacher for the 1st year of his work period. His agreement gets renewed each year, but it would contain the same terms and conditions which needs to be changed every year as it is common for every employment contract to get modified on yearly basis. The agreement also did not mention the change in duties and authorities of Jaimie Rand after his promotion. The entire agreement is similar to the initial contract, which has to be changed as per Jaimie Rand’s job position, payment and duties.
Every legal issue related to the employment contract will be having some consequence or the other. If an employer makes his/her employee work without increasing the wages, though the employee has got promoted, this means that the employer has violated the Employment Standards Act. Then an employee can take legal action by filing a complaint against the employer
in the court, for which an employee would receive a compensation in return (indirect, 2019). It is because as per the act, it is the responsibility of an employer to increase the wages of an employee in accordance with his new position and it is also a duty of an employer to revise the employment contract as per the employee’s status of the job position, wages, etc. with new terms and conditions regularly instead of operating with one single agreement.
A general example of violation of Employment Standards Act:
Steven Blondin was a Director of Automotive CSI in Alliston and 6 other companies in Ontario. He has been sent to the jail for 3 months, as he has failed to pay wages to his 61 employees. During the period of March 2007 and October 2009, his employees have filed a complaint against Steven with the Ministry of Labour (Herald, A. 2012). The Employment Standards Officer has issued orders to Steven for the purpose of making the complete payment to the employees, but he has failed to meet the orders.
The main motive of the Ministry of Labour is to ensure that all the employees are paid fairly, as per their work. As Steven went against the motive of the Ministry of Labour, he was imprisoned with a fine of $2,80,000. He and his companies were ordered to pay the salaries along with 25% victim surcharge. All the companies of Steven were affected due to this (Herald, A. 2012).
One of the crucial areas that has to be addressed in the contract is the detailed information about the wages, increment in wages after the promotion. So that, the employee would be having clarity on his earnings. The benefits (whether monetary or non-monetary) given to the employee in return of their work must also be addressed. It is because, benefits are necessary for every employee in the workplace for them to get motivated and work in order to improve the productivity of the organization. The monetary benefits are those which includes cash and the non-monetary benefits are those that includes-holidays, recreational events etc.
Other than these, the working hours of the employee must be described for the better understanding of the employee. If the employee comes to know about the working hours in prior, he/she would be able to schedule their tasks effectively and efficiently. Also, the circumstances that occur due to the failure of meeting the terms and conditions of the agreement must also be specified. So that, the employees would strictly follow those terms in order to avoid those circumstances.
