Employment Standards Changes

After a little more than one year of introduction of the Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018, now is a good time to remember some of the changes brought by Bill 47:

• Minimum wage frozen at $ 14.00 until 2020, thereafter, increases connected to inflation. The provision to review minimum wages every five years rescinded;
• Temporary and casual workers do not have the right to earn the same wages as permanent employees;
• Workers have no right to request from the Employer to review their rate of pay. The gender equal-pay rule still in effect;
• Sick days payment were eliminated, instead, workers have the right to eight leave days: three sick days, three personal days and two bereavement days. If there are no passing’s in their families they cannot use those two days for another purposes;
• The employer once again, has the right to request a doctor’s note;
• Any employee that has work three months in any given company, has no right to request schedule change or work location transfer;

No Entitlements

• If an employee is on call and does not get to work, the Employer does not have to pay any wages to them (before there was a right to get paid three hours)
• If an employee that normally work more than three hours, but for any reason works less than three hours, they get paid for three hours;
• Employees cannot refuse to work last minute requests for unscheduled shifts;
• If an employee shift is cancelled 48 hours before been scheduled, they do not have the right to get paid three hours;
• Any employee, if the issue arises, has the obligation to prove that they are not independent contractors. In the past it was the Employer had that responsibility;

Strike and Lock-outs

• Any worker on strike or locked-out for more than six months has no right to come back to work after the dispute is solved;

Disputes

• Employees can file an Employment Standard Act claim without priory informing the employer

Source:

• https://www.ontario.ca/page/ministry-labour-training-skills-development