Keeping up with another Ontario Working for Workers Act

The Ontario government, it appears, has been on a mission to “support the safety and wellbeing of workers and their families, grow Ontario’s workforce, and keep costs down for workers and businesses,” according to a recent press release announcing new legislation affecting employment standards, occupational health and safety, and workforce growth.

Called the Working for Workers Six Act, 2024, the new legislation is the sixth in a series of similarly named acts the provincial government has introduced since 2021, and the third in 2024 alone.

While there are differences in the focus of each act, there seems to be at least a couple of trends in the series relating to the rise of remote work and the use of technologies in the workplace, according to Alycia Riley, an associate lawyer at Gowling WLG in Toronto.

Remote work has become much more common since the advent of the pandemic and the Ontario government has recognized this by including telework in the mass terminations provisions under the province’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) and the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), as well as amending the definitions of harassment and sexual harassment to include virtual activities, says Riley.

The trend of increasing technology in the workplace was recognized in the first Working for Workers Act back in 2021 with the introduction of a disconnecting from work policy, followed by a requirement for employers with 25 or more employees to have an electronic monitoring policy in 2022, Riley says.

“More recently, we’ve seen requirements about disclosing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in job postings, and the requirement to post the OHSA and employer policies electronically,” she says. “Also protections for gig economy workers - we saw the introduction of the Digital Platform Workers’ Rights Act in 2022 and it's going to come into force in July 2025 - so there’s a recognition that a lot more people are having a type of work life that requires them to be on the go.”

Job-protected leaves of absence

As for the sixth and latest edition of a Working for Workers Act, the most notable changes involve job-protected leaves of absence, according to Riley. While not following the threads of remote work and technology addressed in some of the previous acts, it does tie into implementations of other leaves that came out of the pandemic since 2021, she says.

“The two major changes to the ESA are the introduction of child placement leave and a long-term illness leave,” says Riley. “Child placement leave is going to be similar to the existing form of pregnancy leave in the ESA, allowing up to 16 weeks of unpaid leave because of the placement or arrival of a child into an employee’s custody, care and control - that's to contemplate specifically for adoption or surrogacy.”

The long-term illness leave – applicable to any employee that has at least 13 weeks of service with their employer, the same as for child placement leave – involves an entitlement up to 27 weeks of unpaid leave for a serious medical condition.

On the safety side of things, Riley sees the most significant change of which employers should take note as involving amendments to the OHSA as it applies to inspections of personal protective clothing and equipment (PPE).

“There's going to be prescribed criteria to ensure a proper fit – this already would fit under the employer's general obligation to take all precautions reasonable to ensure the safety of a worker, but having prescribed criteria may necessitate more of a technical evaluation, depending on the type of equipment or clothing that's being evaluated,” she says. “That's something that employers will have to plan for, just in case they require any outside assistance in making those evaluations.”
 

How should employers handle Ontario’s changes?

The changes brought in by the amendments shouldn’t be too onerous on employers beyond their existing obligations, so the most important action for employers will be communicating them to managers and training them, if necessary – particularly with respect to the new job-protected leaves, says Riley.

“Often, employees requesting a leave go to their manager or their supervisor in the first instance, so it's important to make sure that everyone in HR and management is on the same page with respect to understanding what those entitlements are,” she says. “Perhaps more importantly, also recognizing that even if the employee doesn't specifically ask for a particular type of leave, you have a light bulb going in your mind thinking that [one of the new leaves] could be a type of leave that they're entitled to.”

Another aspect of the new leaves of absence is that, since they come under the purview of the ESA, there can be an overlap with other legislation such as human rights, adds Riley, noting that an employee who's now requesting time off work due to a serious medical condition now may have a right to take a job-protected leave of absence under the ESA - but if they have to take care of an ill family member, they might be engaging family status accommodation under the Ontario Human Rights Code, as well as a right to take family medical leave or a family caregiver leave under the ESA.

“Sometimes companies will see that they’ve covered themselves with the human rights angle, but then they don’t realize that the nature of what the employee was asking for entitles them to a leave under the ESA, even if the employee didn't phrase it in the way that would make you think they’re invoking their right to take a leave,” says Riley. “Sometimes it's just a matter of knowing that entitlement would also apply, even if the employee doesn't say the magic words of requesting it in particular.”
 

Review workplace policies regularly

Riley also suggests that employers review and amend existing policies, if necessary, just to make sure that they accurately reflect any new amendments that are made under the ESA – particularly given the number of changes that have been happening in Ontario. It’s a good idea to review policies regularly anyway, she says.

“It's generally a best practice to be going through policies at least once a year to see if there are any changes that need to be made - certainly, when new pieces of legislation like this come out it’s a good opportunity to review what you have in place currently,” she says.

HR has an important role in making sure their organizations are prepared for these and other changes during this series of statutory changes to employment standards and health and safety requirements.

“The last Working for Workers Act came out just over a month ago, so [the government] is certainly making quite a few changes,” says Riley. “Making sure your policies are up to date and the lines of communication between HR and management are wide open so everybody is aware of the expectations, will ensure the organization doesn’t fall behind.”

With respect to the assessment of PPE and protective clothing, HR partners – and safety officers, where applicable – should take time to assess the current practices, in accordance with employer obligations under the OHSA, adds Riley.

“Once you have a sense of where your organization is currently with respect to these practices, that will help you plan for the future when these and other regulations come into force,” she says.