Labour measures in the BC NDP's platform are causing concern for small business.
The full platform, which was released yesterday, contains measures to:
- index the minimum wage to inflation starting in 2014;
- eliminate the liquor server wage (currently $9 an hour, compared with the $10.25 minimum wage); and
- increase the minimum shift an employee can be called in for from two hours to three.
"Those are all things that are really going to hit small business. Those are things we will probably have to go to bat for," Mike Klassen, B.C. director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, told Business in Vancouver.
"On things like minimum wage increases, we're really opposed to anything that assumes affordability and ignores market conditions," said Klassen. "Automatic increases are just generally not a good idea."
But Mark von Schellwitz of the Canadian Food Services and Restaurant Association said tying wage increases to inflation was a logical move.
"It gives certainty to both employers and employees, and it takes the possibility of politically motivated minimum wage increases in the future away," said von Schellwitz.
However, eliminating the server wage will hurt restaurants, said von Schellwitz. He said that the lower wage allows restaurants to pay harder-to-find kitchen staff, with the understanding that servers can make up the shortfall in tips.
"When [the server wage] was introduced, there was not a big outcry from the servers because they realized these guys in the back of the house need these labour dollars more than we do," said von Schellwitz.
Klassen did applaud the party's plan to expand the B.C. training tax credit program, enabling small businesses to hire co-op students.
"That will be good for dealing with some of the skills and labour shortage that small businesses are facing," said Klassen.
