On December 2, 2021, the Working for Workers Act, 2021 (the “Act”) received Royal Assent and came into force as law. As discussed in our previous communique, the Act will amend a number of statutes, including the Employment Standards Act, 2000, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, and Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act, 2009. These amendments introduce new requirements for employers, including prohibiting non-competition agreements with employees, prohibiting the use of recruiters that charge fees and, for employers with 25 or more employees, requiring the development of “disconnecting from work” policies. Additionally, the Act contains changes to licensing requirements for recruiters.
Now that the Act has received Royal Assent, employers should consider reviewing their policies, practices and employment contracts to ensure compliance ahead of upcoming deadlines imposed by the Act.
Amendments to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”)
Disconnecting from work
The Act requires employers with 25 or more employees to develop “disconnecting from work” policies. Such policies may include reasonable expectations about response time for emails, and encourage employees to turn on out-of-office notifications when they are not working. Currently, there is little guidance as to what the policy must say, so employers should have flexibility to develop policies that further life work balance for their employees without...
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