Human Resources Legislative Update
New Record-Keeping Requirements under Amended Canada Labour Code Regulations, and More
Date: March 17, 2022
On March 16, 2022, the federal government published regulations amending the Canada Labour Standards Regulations, the Standards for Work-Integrated Learning Activities Regulations, and the Administrative Monetary Penalties (Canada Labour Code) Regulations to align them with certain amendments made to Part III of the Canada Labour Code (Code) on September 1, 2019. The Code amendments related to new hours of work provisions and unpaid medical breaks, among others.
The Canada Labour Standards Regulations (CLSR) have been amended to establish related record-keeping requirements, adjust rules pertaining to complaints handling, and make other minor technical changes to align the regulations with the Code.
Of particular note are the CLSR amendments which relate to record-keeping. As started in the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement, among other things these amendments will require employers to keep records of:
- unforeseeable emergencies that an employee had to deal with and as a result of which the employer
- could not provide the employee with 24 hours’ notice of a change to their shift
- had to either postpone or cancel the employee’s 30-minute break
- had to require the employee to work additional hours which resulted in them having a rest period of fewer than 8 hours
- a copy of any certificate from a health care practitioner related to the medical breaks of an employee or student interns and any employer request for such a certificate
- every work schedule and modification of a work schedule that is provided to a student intern, and
- every refusal to work made by a student intern due to not receiving 96 hours’ written notice of their work schedule.
Additional record-keeping requirements are made to the Standards for Work-Integrated Learning Activities Regulations. The Administrative Monetary Penalties (Canada Labour Code) Regulations are amended to impose violations for non-compliance with specific new record-keeping requirements.
We recommend that federally regulated employers review the record-keeping requirements to ensure compliance with these changes.
Among other things, the CLSR amendments also include prescribed instances where the timeline for filing an unjust dismissal complaint may be extended past the regular 90 day deadline. The deadline for filing an unjust dismissal complaint may now be extended if:
- the unjust dismissal complaint is based on substantially similar facts to a previous complaint made under subsections 246.1(1) (reprisal) or 247.99(1) (discipline related to genetic testing) and the previous complaint was withdrawn, and
- the unjust dismissal complaint is based on substantially the same facts of a previous unjust dismissal complaint that was withdrawn because it was incomplete or contained an error.
The amending regulations should be consulted for coming into force information.
We welcome you to contact your regular Hicks Morley lawyer for further information about these regulatory amendments.
The article in this client update provides general information and should not be relied on as legal advice or opinion. This publication is copyrighted by Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP and may not be photocopied or reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without the express permission of Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP. ©
