The Weyburn & District Chamber of Commerce has been reviewing the Government of Saskatchewan's new Employment Act that was released on December 4.
"The Chamber certainly supports the Governments move to consolidate 12 pieces of legislation into one," said Chamber President Jeff Chessall. "On the surface, most of the significant changes appear to be modernizations and not too concerning, but we have more work to do on this file over the coming weeks."
One area the Chamber is particularly interested in is the change to minimum wage. Chamber Manager Jeff Richards indicated that much has yet to be discovered in this process.
"The Chamber met with Government earlier this year to express our concerns with arbitrary and reactionary increases to minimum wage with short notice - similar to the December 1 increase," said Richards.
"Our businesses need to be able to plan for expenses and a $.50 increase to minimum wage can mean thousands of dollars/month to the balance sheet of a business, and those kinds of changes need to be planned. So on the surface, the removal of the Minimum Wage Board and a forecasted minimum wage appears sensible," Richards added.
The Chamber has reviewed the highlights of the new Saskatchewan Employment Act and does applaud any Government that works to remove outdated or redundant legislation. The move to consolidate and modernize is very positive.
