Lesser-known employment standards

For all the dramatic changes recently being implemented in provinces such as Alberta and Ontario — with new legislation around safety, labour or employment standards — there are some rules that don’t get as much attention from human resources and payroll — but are still important to know:

Wedding leave: Quebec is the only jurisdiction in Canada that permits employees to take time off work for weddings — under certain circumstances. Employees may take a day off work with pay on their wedding day.

Employees may also take time off, without pay, on the wedding day of their child, father, mother, brother, sister or of a child of their spouse.

Lie detector tests: New Brunswick and Ontario prohibit employers from requiring or asking employees, including recruits, to take lie detector tests.

The Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 Policy and Interpretation Manual said the government added the prohibition in the early 1980s in response to a growing number of employers implementing mandatory lie detector tests, particularly in pre-employment screening.

Jury duty: While employers in all parts of Canada would be hard-pressed to deny an employee a leave of absence for jury duty, there are actually only four jurisdictions — New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and the Northwest Territories — that have included an employee’s right to time off for jury duty in employment standards laws.

The provisions require employers to give employees time off work in order to serve on a jury or attend court as a witness.

Employers cannot dismiss, lay off, suspend, intimidate, penalize, discipline or discriminate against employees because they take the time off.

However, the four jurisdictions do not require employers to pay employees while they are off — although they may choose to do so.

The legislation in New Brunswick and the Northwest Territories allows employers that pay employees who are taking a court leave to request that the employees reimburse their employer the amount of any jury or witness fee they receive, minus any amounts paid for travel, meals or accommodation expenses.

Of note: Newfoundland and Labrador requires employers to pay employees while they are serving on a jury, acting as a witness in a court case, or taking part in a public inquiry.

The requirement is not in the province’s Labour Standards Act but its Jury Act, 1991. It states employers must continue to pay employees the same wages and provide the same benefits as they would have had the employees not been summoned for court duties.

Employers that fail to comply will face fines of up to $1,000 or, in default of payment, imprisonment of up to three months.

In addition, employers in Newfoundland and Labrador will be required to pay the employees’ outstanding wages and benefits.

Sale or transfer of business: Employment standards laws in all Canadian jurisdictions contain provisions that cover employee rights in the event that their employer decides to sell, lease, transfer or merge its business to or with another business.

In general, the laws in all jurisdictions state that a sale, lease, merger or transfer does not interrupt employees’ employment with their employer. This means their length of service for determining entitlements such as paid vacations and notice of termination does not change with new ownership of a business.

Specific standards not affected by an ownership change may vary between jurisdictions, with some provinces providing blanket coverage for all standards, while others specify which provisions are not impacted.

Ontario and Prince Edward Island have included an exception, with laws stating that continuity requirements do not apply if more than 13 weeks elapse between an employee’s last day of work with the original employer or the date of the sale — whichever comes first — and the date the successor employer hires the employee.