Human Resources Legislative Update
New Regulations Filed Under Labour Relations Act, 1995 – Arbitration Awards to be Made Publicly Available
Date: November 22, 2018
On November 21, 2018, the Ontario government filed two regulations made under the Labour Relations Act, 1995 (LRA).
The first regulation is made further to the repeal by Bill 47, Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018 of certain provisions of the LRA, previously enacted by Bill 148, Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017 (Bill 148).
O. Reg. 481/18 amends O. Reg. 534/17 (Transitional Matters) to revoke certain transitional provisions which relate to events that occurred on or after January 1, 2018, the date the LRA provisions of Bill 148 came into force. O. Reg. 481/18 came into force on November 21, 2018.
The second regulation, O. Reg. 482/18, amends section 1 of O. Reg. 94/07 (General). Section 1 currently requires arbitrators to file a copy of their award with the Minister within 10 days of issuing the award. The Minister is obligated to maintain the awards filed. Any person may request a copy of the awards, upon request and upon payment of a fee.
O. Reg. 482/18 revokes section 1 and replaces it with a provision that maintains the requirement that arbitrators must file a copy of an award with the Minister within 10 days of issuing the award, but parties wishing a copy of an award are no longer required to request a copy and pay a fee. Under the amended section, the Minister must publish the copies of the awards filed, or otherwise make them available to the public. The Minister may satisfy this obligation by publishing copies of the awards on a government of Ontario website.
O. Reg. 482/18 comes into force on July 1, 2019
