There have been significant changes to employment law in Ontario over the past two years. Many changes were introduced in January of this year, others were instituted halfway through 2018 and still more scheduled were to come into effect in 2019.

The latest proposed changes are contained in Bill 47, legislature introduced by the Ontario government on October 23.

Many of the changes repeal elements of the previous government’s legislation (Bill 148) and Bill 47 proposes to significantly alter elements of Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA), Labour Relations Act, 1995 and the Ontario College of Trades and Apprenticeship Act, 2009.

The Bill is only at the First Reading stage, and is therefore subject to change as it goes through the legislative process. However, given that the government holds a majority of the seats in the Legislature, it is likely that the final version of Bill 47 will be substantially similar to what is currently being proposed. If and when Bill 47 is passed, the intention is for the changes to take effect on January 1, 2019.

At this time, there is not a need for employers to take immediate action to update policies or practices, but this post highlights some changes that are most likely to be passed

While many of the changes in Bill 47 repeal elements of the previous government’s legislation, in the interests of simplicity, the focus here is on the changes to come rather than comparing the laws in place now and previously.

Minimum Wage
The minimum wage is currently $14.00 per hour and will be frozen at $14.00 until October of 2020, at which time it will return to the practice of rising with inflation.

Equal Pay for Equal Work
Bill 47 would remove the definition of “difference in employment status” from the Employment Standards Act.
This would mean that part-time, casual, temporary, and assignment employee status workers (temporary help agency status) would not be guaranteed the same pay entitlements as full-time permanent workers.

The existing rules of equal pay for equal work based on gender will continue unchanged.

Personal Emergency Leave
Until December 2018 employees are entitled to 10 days of emergency leave, two of which are paid.

Under Bill 47, those Personal Emergency Leave provisions are being repealed and replaced on January 1 2019 by:

• Three (3) unpaid personal illness days;
• Two (2) unpaid bereavement days; and
• Three (3) unpaid family responsibility days.
• Bill 47 would also give employers the right to require evidence of entitlement to the leave (e.g., a note from a qualified health practitioner).
• Regarding domestic and sexual violence, the provisions introduced at the beginning of 2018 (in Bill 148) will remain without change.

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Call in Pay
Bill 47 repeals the requirement that was to come into effect on January 1, 2019 that employers were required to pay 3 hours pay to employees on call in regardless of whether the employee was called into work.

Request for schedule or work location changes
In effect, the enactment of Bill 47 will mean that laws regarding request for schedule or work location changes do not change from existing law.

The previous government had proposed changes in the regard, but those changes were scheduled to come into effect on January 1, 2019. If passed, Bill 47 would repeal those proposed scheduling provisions and the law in effect now would carry through beyond January 2019.

Bill 47 does contain a new three-hour rule: if an employee who regularly works more than three hours a day is required to report to work, but works less than three hours, the employee would be paid for three hours.

Public Holiday Pay
This is the area which has probably caused the most confusion in the past year. Bill 47 looks to repeal the public holiday pay formula that was set out in Ontario Regulation 375/18 and was part of Bill 148.

The formula will revert to the previous public holiday pay formula, that is the public holiday pay formula that was in effect for many years up until the Victoria Day holiday of 2018, when Regulation 375/18 was implemented.

Importantly, the public holidays in December of this year will fall under the rules that took effect after Victoria Day, under Regulation 375/18.

Pay for the first public holiday of 2019, if Bill 47 is implemented, will be calculated under the formula used prior to 2018 that you are very familiar with.

Regarding Vacation Pay, employees’ will be eligible for three weeks’ vacation after five years of employment. Employees with less than five years of service are entitled to two weeks’ vacation.

Contract Employees
In misclassification claims under Bill 47, the onus will not be on employers to prove that independent contractors and other non-employees were not employees.

Labour Relations Act
Bill 47 also proposes substantial changes to the Labour Relations Act. Noted below are the most generally applicable changes. Other proposed revisions are quite detailed and apply only in specific circumstances. If you would like to contact me, I would be happy to provide you with the complete information available at this time.

• A secret ballot system (instead of card-based certification) will apply to workers in home care, building services, and temporary help agencies
• Employers will not be required to hand over employee contact information once a union establishes 20% support for certification.
• Remedial certification rules will revert to pre-2018 rules
• Also reverting to pre 2018 rules will be:
• A six month limit on an employee’s right to reinstatement after a strike or lock-out.
• Rules for first collective agreement mediation and mediation-arbitration provisions and access to first agreement arbitration have reverted back to the criteria in place prior to Bill 148. First collective agreement arbitration will only be granted where one of the parties has undermined the negotiations.
• Fines for breach of the Act will return to a maximum of $25,000 for a corporation or trade union, and $2,000 for individuals.