PROPOSED CHANGES TO ONTARIO’S EMPLOYMENT LAWS
Authored by Catherine Willson with the assistance of Articling student Stefanie Lima
The Ontario Government in an attempt to create fairness, opportunity, and security for workers across Ontario has announced that it intends to introduce several amendments to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”). The proposed changes, which will be included in the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017, will be in place as early as January next year.
The ESA proposed changes include the following:
- Minimum Wage Increase:
Proposes changing the minimum wage, currently at $11.40 per hour, to $14.00 per hour on January 1, 2018, and to $15.00 per hour on January 1, 2019.
- Equal Pay with Comparable Full-Time Employees:
Casual, part-time, and seasonal employees are to be paid the same pay as full-time employees when performing the same or similar job for the same employer. These employees are invited to request a review of their wages if they believe they are not receiving equal wages as full-time employees in the same position.
Similarly, Temporary Help Agency employees, assignment workers, who perform substantially the same work as employees of agency clients would be entitled to equal pay.
- Increased Vacation Pay:
An employee, after five years of service with the same employer, would be entitled to three weeks’ paid vacation, rather than only the current two weeks.
- Personal Emergency Leave and Paid Sick Days:
All employers must provide employees with up to 10 days of personal emergency leave days per year. Further, the first two days of personal emergency leave are required to be paid by the employer. Currently, there is no obligation to pay any sick days. This change would also prohibit employers from requesting a sick note from the employee taking the leave.
- Restricting Independent Contractors:
Employers will be prevented from misclassifying employees as ‘independent contractors’. If challenged the onus is on the employer to prove that an individual worker is not an employee. Employers that misclassify their employees could be subject to penalties including prosecution, public disclosure of a conviction, and fines.
- Scheduling Rules:
The proposed scheduling changes are:
-an employee, who regularly works more than 3 hours per day, will be entitled to 3 hours of pay for shifts under 3 hours, at their regular rate
-an employee will be entitled to 3 hours pay in the event a shift is cancelled without sufficient notice, i.e. 48 hours before start of shift
-an employee will be given a right to refuse requests or demands to work on days that an employee is not scheduled to work.
- ESA Claims:
The proposed legislation will no longer require employees to contact their employer before filing a claim under the ESA. Additionally, insufficient information provided from a claimant will no longer bar an investigation of an ESA claim.
- ESA Compliance:
The Ontario government also intends to hire 175 additional workplace inspectors whom will inspect 10% of Ontario workplaces each year. This means compliance with the new changes will be ever more important, especially since the new legislation intends to:
-increase non-compliance fines; and
-establish a publication with names of individuals who have been issued a penalty, a description of the non-compliance, the date of non-compliance, and the amount of the penalty.