Ontario’s Working for Workers Act, 2023: Key Changes Affecting Employers

On October 26, 2023, the Working for Workers Act, 2023 (the “Act”), the Ontario government’s third iteration of this legislation aimed at protecting workers,  received Royal Assent and came into force. The Act introduces amendments to several employment-related statutes, impacting employers across the province. Below are some of the most relevant amendments. 

Working for Workers Act

Mass Terminations Under the ESA:

One of the most notable changes introduced by the Act is the expansion of the definition of an employer’s “establishment” under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”). This expansion now includes the private residences of employees who work from home. As a result, employers must take these employees into account when assessing mass terminations. Mass terminations occur when 50 or more employees are terminated within the employer’s “establishment” in a four-week period.

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Practical Tips on How Employers Can Meet Their Joint Health and Safety Committee Obligations

In Ontario, employers must abide by the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) to ensure the safety of their workplace and workers. One legal requirement under OHSA that we often get questions about is an employer’s obligations around the Joint Health and Safety Committees (JHSC). Here are some practical tips for employers to meet these obligations. 

Practical tips for meeting JHSC obligations in Ontario

How to build your Joint Health and Safety Committee? 

The number of employees your workplace has will determine the size of your committee. For this blog, we will focus on workplaces that are over 20 employees but under 50 employees, indicating that your JHSC needs to be made up of two members. One worker member and one management member. The worker member must be selected by their fellow workers and is typically someone who is a good role model and has shown an interest in the health and safety of the workplace. The management member must be selected by the employer and should have similar interests. At least one of the members from each category must be certified, meaning they have completed mandatory certification training. The names and work locations of the members must also be posted at your workplace. 

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You’ve been served with notice to bargain, now what?

Receiving a notice to bargain can be overwhelming for an employer, especially if it is to negotiate a first collective agreement. It is important to understand key steps in the process in order to be prepared to achieve the best outcome for your business. 

“You’ve been served with notice to bargain, now what?”

Do not feel rushed 

There is no need to immediately schedule bargaining sessions once you receive notice to bargain. The obligation is to commence bargaining within a reasonable time frame such that the employer is not interfering with the union’s right to collective bargaining. Understandably, it could take up to a few months to align the schedules of the bargaining teams on both sides and to ensure adequate time for preparation. 

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Approaching, Understanding and Implementing Legal Settlements

At a time when our civil justice system is plagued by extreme delay, I am grateful to practice law in an area that is well known for its focus on creative and practical problem-solving and settling, as opposed to litigating disputes. There are certainly some labour and employment disputes which simply must be litigated, but the majority of disputes will ultimately be settled. 

Legal Settlements: Mastering Disputes

 

There are many reasons why settlement is often an attractive option (the delay and cost of litigation, the peace of mind a settlement can bring, and avoiding the disruption and harm that litigation can cause to a business or its reputation …just to name a few) but in this blog we will provide some tips for considering, understanding and implementing legal settlements.

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Respect in the Workplace Policies: An Employer’s Starting Point for DEIB Initiatives

Employers often state that promoting DEIB initiatives is a top priority, and they ask us how best to improve on the start they’ve made (or how to get on board in a meaningful way for the first time). For those less versed in this space, DEIB stands for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. The ‘belonging’ component is a more recent addition to the acronym. According to Gallup, in a ‘culture of belonging’ employees are appreciated for what they bring to the group, there is a genuine desire for meaningful relationships, and there is an appreciation for the differences between people. In addition to leading to a happier workplace, it’s no surprise that fostering a culture of belonging makes good business sense. Gallup found that if more employees believed that their opinions counted, “organizations could reduce turnover by as much as 27%, safety incidents by 40%, and increase productivity by 12%.”

DEIB Workplace Policy

A growing community of recruitment and HR professionals and consultants are promoting and advancing  DEIB initiatives by sharing innovative tools and resources – e.g. AI communication coaching providing private, judgment-free feedback on our unconscious biases (we have them!); quizzes or surveys to assess whether we understand and how we perceive the concept of belonging at work; DEIB courses on having a more productive dialogue about diversity; roadmaps for highly engaged employee resource groups (ERGs), and so on. While there is a loooong way to go, the growth in this space is impressive. 

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Potential Employment Law Issues When Managing a Remote or Hybrid Workforce

According to Statistics Canada, in 2023 20% of Canadian workers reported that they “usually” work from home. This is a significant jump from the pre-pandemic numbers, with only 7% of workers reporting that they usually worked from home in 2016.

Many employers now are trying to figure out how to move forward with working arrangements for their employees in the post-pandemic world- fully remote? Fully in-person? A hybrid of both? 

If your business has employees working remotely, whether all the time or some of the time, there are certain employment law issues you should consider as remote work becomes a more permanent and prevalent part of the employment landscape. 

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