On June 19, 2019, the government published two regulatory proposals which relate to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) and for which the government is inviting feedback by August 5, 2019.
Publication Name: Minimum Standards Monitor
Recent ESA Cases of Note
In a significant decision rendered on September 19, 2018, Wood v. CTS of Canada Co., the Ontario Court of Appeal considered the Form 1, which is required under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) to be posted and filed in cases of mass termination.
The First Bill 148 Cases: Overview of Key New ESA Decisions
It has now been 7 months since Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017, was enacted and cases are beginning to emerge which interpret the new provisions of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA). In this Minimum Standards Monitor, we review some decisions of particular interest to employers which involve the new personal emergency leave (PEL) requirements, the equal pay for equal work provisions and the new minimum wage entitlements.
Ontario Government Reinstates Prior Public Holiday Pay Formula Effective July 1, 2018
Late on May 7, 2018, the Ontario government announced that it is reinstating the prior public holiday pay formula that pre-dated Bill 148. Ontario Regulation 375/18 was filed on the same day and the reinstatement of the prior formula comes into force on July 1, 2018. The regulation will remain in force until December 31, 2019…
It’s All in the Timing – Minimum Standards and When Employees Are Considered to be “Working”
In this edition of the Monitor, we will summarize a few recent cases on the topic of when an employee is “working” and entitled to compensation. These cases demonstrate that not all travel time is compensable, that pre-employment training time can be compensable, and that an employer can determine that a meal break must be taken in the workplace as long as it is uninterrupted.
Planning to Give Notice of Mass Termination under the ESA? What Employers Should Know
In a decision rendered on September 26, 2017, an Ontario court held that an employer violated the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) when it failed to file a Form 1 with the Ministry of Labour (MOL) on the same date that that the employer provided approximately 12 months’ working notice of termination to 77 employees. As a result, the employer was not given any credit for the working notice period that preceded the date it filed the Form 1 with the MOL – a period of over one year. Rather, common law damages will be assessed on the basis of a much smaller working notice period of less than 8 weeks. This decision signals that the failure to file a Form 1 contemporaneously with the giving of notice of mass termination may have costly implications for employers.
Appellate Court Considers Payment of Commissions For Laid-Off Employee
In Bakshi v. Global Credit & Collection Inc., the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal of a decision of the Ontario Superior Court which had upheld the non-payment of commissions after lay-off on transactions that occurred prior to lay-off…
Recent Minimum Standards Cases of Note
In this Minimum Standards Monitor, we discuss two recent cases of interest to employers. In the first, an arbitrator found that an employee returning from maternity/parental leave was not entitled to the exact same work conditions which she left, even though the original job still existed. A comparable replacement position was sufficient…
Is a Pier a Road for the Purpose of Overtime Pay Entitlement?
As any employer will know, the overtime rules in the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) contain a myriad of exclusions that are difficult to interpret at the best of times. However, emerging case law provides new guidance…
OLRB Considers Employer’s Obligation to Pay for Commuting Time of Employee Using Company Vehicle
When employees are provided with company vehicles to take home at the end of the work day, does the employer have to pay for their commuting time directly to and from a job site?