Late last year, CCPartners published an Employers' Edge overview of the Working for Workers Act, amending Ontario's Employment Standards Act, 2000 by adding a requirement for a written policy on "disconnecting from work" and generally prohibiting non-compete clauses in employment agreements. The Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development has just released some additional information providing guidance on exactly what employers are (and are not) required to do.

EMPLOYERS MUST IMPLEMENT A WRITTEN POLICY ON DISCONNECTING FROM WORK

What is Disconnecting from Work?

Part VII.0.1 of the ESA now requires employers with 25 or more employees to ensure that it has a written policy "with respect to disconnecting from work".

"Disconnecting from work" is defined to mean: "not engaging in work-related communications, including emails, telephone calls, video calls or the sending or reviewing of other messages, so as to be free from the performance of work". The definition is inclusive, and not exhaustive, so other elements may be appropriate for inclusion in the employer's policy.

Who are Employees?

The requirement to have a policy on disconnecting from work applies only to those provincially-regulated employers (certain Crown employers not included) with 25 or more employees as of January 1 in each calendar year.

All employees from all of an employer's locations in Ontario are counted for purposes of determining whether the employer has met the 25 employee threshold, and the...

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