On February 18, 2022, Ontario’s Your guide to the Employment Standards Act (Guide) was updated to include two new chapters that provide guidance on recent amendments to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) that first appeared in Bill 27, Working for Workers Act, 2021 (Bill 27). Bill 27 received Royal Assent on December 2, 2021 and came into force on that day.
The first new chapter of the Guide, Written policy on disconnecting from work, relates to an ESA amendment that requires employers with 25 or more employees to implement a written policy on disconnecting from work; the second new chapter, Non-compete agreements, relates to an ESA amendment that prohibits certain non-compete agreements.
The following summarizes the new requirement and prohibition and offers information about the guidance provided in the Guide’s new chapters.
Written Policy on Disconnecting from Work
Requirements
Employers that employ 25 or more employees are required to have a written policy on disconnecting from work (Policy) in place for all employees. They must provide a copy of the written policy to all employees.
In the first year of the requirement, employers that employ 25 or more employees on January 1, 2022 have until June 2, 2022 to have a Policy in place.
Beginning in 2023, employers that employ 25 or more employees on January 1 of any year must have a Policy in place before March 1 of that year.
“Disconnecting from work” is defined as “not engaging in work-related communications,...
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