Promise of the Liberals to establish strict rules for unpaid interns until 2019

OTTAWA – Justin Trudeau's Liberals will not live up to their promise to crack down on unpaid internships until next year, nearly four years after the federal government first approached the problem [19659002]. promised to eliminate unpaid internships in federally regulated workplaces – the only exception being the placement of students required as part of a school course. Trainees would be treated as regular employees, with the same working hours and the same safety rules.

Officials now say it will be the fall of 2019 – just at the time of the next federal election – when they will unveil the latest settlement. "Once the law was changed, most people thought you could not do it anymore," said Hbadan Yussuff, president. [TRADUCTION] "I do not know why they did not put regulations in place because they were very clear, and immediately after their election they acted accordingly."

The first government pbad to the trainee rules landed in December 2015, a few weeks after the Liberals came to power.The proposal was similar to that of the previous Conservative government, whose final bill provided for amendments to labor legislation to protect unpaid trainees

However, consultations failed when the Canadian Trainee Association gave up, and union groups and student unions protested against a proposal to allow trainees to work without pay up to four months full-time or up to one year part-time.The mandate letter from the Minister of Labor, Patty Hajdu asks her to update the following standards to "address emerging issues such as unpaid internships".

the government's second bill removed part of the Canada Labor Code which provided for unpaid internships in some cases, but provided for an exception for education.

The ministry overseeing the new regulations plans to hold consultations in the fall. "While we are encouraged by the fact that the federal government is finally attacking unpaid internships with federally regulated employers, we are also concerned that the delays are excessive. and push for concrete action in 2019 or 2020, "said Andrew Langille, a lawyer with the Canadian Trainee Association.

"The commitment to deal with unpaid internships was made during the 2015 election and one would think that four years would be enough time to tackle a simple change regulatory. "