Ontario Employers | MacLeod Law Firm

Employment Law Update: Electronic Monitoring Policy

MacLeod Law Firm — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 14:00:31 +0000

A new amendment to the Employment Standards Act requires employers with 25 or more employees on January 1st of a given year to put in place a written policy regarding any electronic monitoring processes they use to monitor employees. The deadline for 2022 is October 11, 2022. As electronic monitoring practices vary widely between businesses and different industries, the specific practices of…

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Ontario Government Proposes More Employment Laws

Doug MacLeod — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 04:00:41 +0000

In my last blog, I summarized some new employment laws that the Ontario government passed in December 2021. On February 28, 2022 the Ford government proposed more new employment legislation when it tabled Bill 88. This blog discusses three parts of Bill 88; that is, (i) a new law that would apply to gig workers who are currently mostly unregulated, (ii) a requirement that some employers…

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Employer Update: Recent Changes to Ontario’s Employment Standards Act

Doug MacLeod — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 07:30:51 +0000

In December 2021, the Doug Ford government amended Ontario’s Employment Standards Act. This blog discusses two of these changes. 1. Prohibition against Non-Compete Agreements As of October 25, 2021, employers are prohibited from entering into employment contracts or other agreements with an employee that are, or that include, a “non-compete agreement,“ which is defined as an agreement…

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Working for Workers Act, 2021: New Obligations Imposed on Employers

Doug MacLeod — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 15:02:09 +0000

New obligations are being imposed on employers as a result of the Bill 27, or the Working for Workers Act, 2021. Three new obligations that will be imposed on employers: 1. Employers who employ 25 or more employees will be required to have a written policy with respect to disconnecting from work. The term “disconnecting from work” is defined to mean not engaging in work-related…

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Have reasonable notice periods increased during the COVID pandemic?

Doug MacLeod — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 15:40:30 +0000

I will tell anyone who asks – and many people who don’t ask – that every employer should require every employee to sign an employment contract with an enforceable termination clause. More and more employers are doing so, however there are still many employees who have not signed an employment contract with an enforceable termination clause. Particularly because of the Ontario Court of Appeal’s…

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Wrongful Dismissal: How To Reduce Litigation Risk

Doug MacLeod — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 13:55:40 +0000

The best way to reduce litigation risk in relation to an employee termination is to agree in advance how much notice of termination (or pay in lieu of notice) an employee is entitled to receive. Employers rarely provide ANY notice of termination so the employee’s employment contract should have a termination clause setting out how termination pay is calculated. Kraft v.

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Mandatory COVID Vaccination Policies

Doug MacLeod — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 14:30:53 +0000

Mandatory COVID vaccination is a controversial issue at the moment. Children will be returning to school in a couple weeks and many parents want all staff and children over 12 vaccinated. The federal Liberals announced it is introducing mandatory vaccinations in a number of settings just before it called an election to create a wedge issue with the PC party who is against mandatory vaccination.

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Is a Temporary Layoff under the ESA a termination at common law?

Doug MacLeod — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 14:00:41 +0000

When the COVID pandemic hit Ontario, many employers temporarily laid off employees because business revenues plummeted. To address these massive layoffs, the Ontario government introduced O. Reg. 228/20: Infectious Disease Emergency Leave (the ¨IDEL Regulation¨) under the Employment Standards Act (the ¨ESA¨) which provides, among other things, that temporary layoffs that take place between…

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Employee Payroll Costs in Ontario: Nowhere to Go but Up

MacLeod Law Firm — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 16:03:56 +0000

The Minimum Wage is Increasing On June 1, 2014 the minimum wage increased to $ 11 per hour for most employees. A momentous increase for employers? Perhaps not. But let’s take a look at the bigger financial picture; the cost of employing a person in Ontario is more than the person’s salary or wages. A Mandatory Pension with an Employer Contribution is coming Employers are not currently required to…

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