The Canadian province of Ontario recently enacted expansive revisions to its existing Employment Standards Act (ESA). Among other things, the “Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017” imposes new predictable scheduling requirements on covered employers, provides a guaranteed right to vacation time, expands already generous parental leave entitlements, adds new types of protected family leave, and increases the hourly minimum wage.
The new law also makes significant changes to Ontario’s existing equal pay requirements, including restricting pay secrecy policies and giving employees the right to request a “pay review” – in response to which the employer must either implement the requested pay adjustment or explain in writing the reasons for its refusal to do so. In addition, the law extends equal pay protection to all workers “regardless of employment status,” including casual, part-time, temporary, and seasonal employees.
The Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act contains staggered effective dates, some of which went into effect on January 1, 2018.
A copy of Ontario’s Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act is available here.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.