Ontario’s latest round of Working for Workers legislation, which came into effect Jan. 1, further expands employers’ legal obligations — this time at the very front end of the employment relationship: hiring.
Many employers will groan. Another compliance burden. Another rule layered onto an already dense regulatory thicket.
But not every new obligation deserves reflexive resistance. Some of them correct deeply-embedded — and surprisingly risky — business practices that employers have tolerated for far too long.
One such change requires employers to notify job applicants of the status of their candidacy within 45 days of the applicant’s final interview. Importantly, the law does not require a hiring decision within that period. It simply requires communication: has a decision been made, yes or no?
That modest obligation targets a practice that has quietly metastasized across the labor market: candidate ghosting.
Ghosting is not confined to dating apps. In Ontario, it has become a routine feature of recruitment. Applicants submit résumés, complete assessments, attend multiple interviews, disclose personal and sometimes sensitive information and then — nothing. No rejection. No update. Just silence.
From the employer’s perspective, ghosting can feel efficient. Non-confrontational. Harmless.
It is none of those.
The costs are real and rising. Applying for a job is rarely casual. Candidates take time off work, arrange childcare, prepare presentations and invest emotional...
Kenneth Scott Miller, 48, is charged with a felony count of making a false report to law enforcement. He was released from the Escambia County Jail on a $500 bond. According to an Escambia County ...