What Employers Need to Know: HR Compliance Checklist 2024 (Ontario)

Mandatory poster and information sheets for employers | Your guide to the Employment Standards Act | ontario.ca

Posters required in the workplace | ontario.ca

• Health & Safety at Work > Prevention Starts Here Poster
• Occupational Health and Safety Act and explanatory material prepared by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development that outlines the rights, responsibilities and duties of workers (in English and other relevant languages)
• Joint Health and Safety Committee Members (JHSC) or the Health & Safety Representative
• Policies: Health & Safety; Workplace Violence; Workplace Harassment [for employers with five (5) or more workers]

• In Case of Injury poster which details steps to follow if an injury occurs in the workplace.

Purpose: To outline responsibilities of the employer and workers, and action to be taken to resolve any discrepancies.

Written policy on disconnecting from work | Your guide to the Employment Standards Act | ontario.ca

“Not engaging in work-related communications, including emails, telephone calls, video calls or sending or reviewing other messages, to be free from the performance of work.”

Employers are now prohibited from entering into contracts or other agreements with an employee that include a non-compete agreement which is defined as:

Non-compete agreements | Your guide to the Employment Standards Act | ontario.ca

• The sale of a business or part of a business.
• Does not apply to executives.

“Any person who holds the office of chief executive officer, president, chief administrative officer, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, chief information officer, chief legal officer, chief human resources officer or chief corporate development officer, or any other chief executive position.”

Temporary Help Agencies

• In order to operate a temporary Help Agency, a license is required for that purpose.

Recruiters

• Recruiters are required to have a license and are prohibited from charging fees to a foreign national for their recruitment or employment services.

Bill 27 states: “No client shall knowingly engage or use the services of a temporary help agency unless the person who operates the temporary help agency holds a licence for that purpose as required under subsection (1).”

Bill 27 states that an applicant applying for a license to act as a recruiter must provide:

(A)  a statement that the applicant is aware that subsection 7 (1) of the Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act, 2009 prohibits a person who acts as a recruiter in connection with the employment of a foreign national from directly or indirectly charging the foreign national a fee for any service, good or benefit provided to the foreign national,

10.2 (1) A regulated profession shall not require as a qualification for registration that a person’s experience be Canadian experience, unless an exemption from the prohibition is granted by the Minister for the purposes of public health and safety in accordance with the regulations.

29.1 (1) Subject to subsection (2), the owner of a workplace shall ensure that access to a washroom is provided, on request, to a worker who is present at the workplace to deliver anything to the workplace, or to collect anything from the workplace for delivery elsewhere.

The purpose of the Act is to establish rights for workers who provide services through the use of digital platforms.

Digital Platform work is defined to mean:

“The provision of for payment ride share, delivery, courier or other prescribed services by workers who are offered work assignments by an operator through the use of a digital platform.”

These rights are:

• The right to information (section 7).
• The right to a recurring pay period and pay day (section 8).
• The right to minimum wage (section 9).
• The right to amounts earned by the worker and to tips and other gratuities (section 10).
• The right to notice of removal from an operator’s digital platform (section 11).
• The right to resolve digital platform work-related disputes in Ontario (section 12).
• The right to be free from reprisal (section 13).

3 (1) Subject to subsection (2), the worker rights set out in this Act apply with respect to a worker if,

(a) the worker’s work assignment is to be performed in Ontario; or

(b) the worker’s work assignment is to be performed in Ontario and outside Ontario but the work performed outside Ontario is a continuation of the work performed in Ontario.

The Act also sets out rules, processes and requirements with respect to:

• record keeping.
• director liability.
• complaints and enforcement.
• collections, and
• offences and prosecutions.

Information Technology Consultant is defined as, “an individual who provides advice or services to a business or organization in respect of its information technology systems, including advice about or services in respect of planning, designing, analyzing, documenting, configuring, developing, testing and installing the business or organization’s information technology systems; (“conseiller en technologie de l’information)”

These new exemptions came into effect on January 1, 2023.

Note:

Bill 88 amends the ESA to expand on Reservist Leave.

Workers in Ontario are now eligible for job-protected leaves of absence if unable to work because they are participating in Canadian Armed Forces Military Skills Training.

Workers are now eligible under the ESA after being employed by the employer for three (3) consecutive months. Previous requirement was six (6) months.

Note: This requirement also applies to new employees and assignment employees through a temporary help agency. 

1. The business consultant or information technology consultant provides services through,
2. a corporation of which the consultant is either a director or a shareholder who is a party to a unanimous shareholder agreement, or
3. a sole proprietorship of which the consultant is the sole proprietor, if the services are provided under a business name of the sole proprietorship that is registered under the Business Names Act.
4. There is an agreement for the consultant’s services that sets out when the consultant will be paid and the amount the consultant will be paid, which must be equal to or greater than $60 per hour, excluding bonuses, commissions, expenses and travelling allowances and benefits, or such other amount as may be prescribed, and must be expressed as an hourly rate.
5. The consultant is paid the amount set out in the agreement as required by paragraph 2.
6. Such other requirements as may be prescribed.

“An employer that, on January 1 of any year, employs 25 or more employees shall, before March 1 of that year, ensure it has a written policy in place for all employees with respect to electronic monitoring of employees.”

The written policy with respect to electronic monitoring must contain the following information:

1. Whether the employer electronically monitors employees and if so,
2. a description of how and in what circumstances the employer may electronically monitor employees, and
3. the purposes for which information obtained through electronic monitoring may be used by the employer.
4. The date the policy was prepared and the date any changes were made to the policy.
5. Such other information as may be prescribed.

Copy of Policy

An employer that is required under this section to have a written policy with respect to electronic monitoring shall provide a copy of the policy to each of the employer’s employees within 30 days from the day the employer is required to have the policy in place or, if an existing policy is changed, within 30 days of the changes being made.

Bill 88 amends the OHSA to require certain employers to have naloxone kits available in the workplace. Specifically:

25.2

Where an employer becomes aware, or ought reasonably to be aware, that there may be a risk of a worker having an opioid overdose at a workplace where that worker performs work for the employer, or where the prescribed circumstances exist, the employer shall,

(a)  provide and maintain in good condition a naloxone kit in that workplace; and

(b)  comply with any other prescribed requirements respecting the provision and maintenance of naloxone kits and the training referred to in subsection (3).

• The employer shall ensure that, at any time there are workers in the workplace, the naloxone kit is in the charge of a worker who works in the vicinity of the kit and who has received the training described in subsection (3).

Training

• The training shall include training to recognize an opioid overdose, to administer naloxone and to acquaint the worker with any hazards related to the administration of naloxone, and shall meet such other requirements as may be prescribed.

Limit on Disclosure

• No employer shall disclose to any person more personal information than is reasonably necessary to comply with this section.

Employer Duties

• For greater certainty, the employer duties set out in section 25 apply, as appropriate, with respect to the administration of naloxone in the workplace.