Yesterday, the Ontario Government introduced Bill 139, the Employment Standards Amendment Act (Temporary Help Agencies), 2008, and also announced related changes to the ESA regulations. These changes will affect any employer or organization that: (1) employs “elect to work” or casual employees; (2) is a temporary help agency; or (3) uses the services of a…
Insights
Hicks Morley publishes a number of materials, both electronic and print, on issue-specific and sector-specific topics of interest to our clients. Our insights section has links to all of our various publications, updates and blogs, both current and historical, to keep you informed of developments in the law that impact human resources.
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FTR Now
On September 17, 2008, the Ontario Ministry of Labour released a Consultation Paper on Workplace Violence Prevention. The Consultation Paper seeks input from workplace parties on whether and how Ontario should address workplace violence under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (“OHSA”). The Consultation Paper asks for input on whether OHSA should be amended to…
FTR Now
Amendments to the Colleges Collective Bargaining Act
· 6 min readThe government introduced the proposed amendments to the CCBA yesterday afternoon. It is anticipated that it will go to committee in the summer and be passed sometime in the fall. PART TIME BARGAINING UNITS In addition to maintaining the existing full time bargaining units, The Act creates two new province wide bargaining units, one for…
FTR Now
Employers and human resource professionals will undoubtedly remember 2021 as another year shaped by the pandemic. But … there were also legal developments in 2021 that were not related to COVID-19. In this FTR Now, we look at some of the year’s notable “non-pandemic” cases and legislative developments of interest.
FTR Now
On Monday, March 23, 2020, the Ontario government issued an Emergency Order granting Ontario Health Service Providers broad authority to take all reasonable steps necessary to staff as needed to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has now taken two significant steps to grant similar authority to Long-Term Care home providers and Municipal Homes for the Aged to address the staffing issues which may arise due to the emerging pandemic.
FTR Now
Employers using equity-based compensation should take note of this recent decision by the Ontario Superior Court in Wigdor v. Facebook Canada Ltd. In this FTR Now, Hicks Morley’s Alex Lemoine provides three key takeaways around termination provisions in employment and compensation agreements.
Federal Post
The #federalgovernment published proposed regulatory amendments that would implement significant changes to leave entitlements for federally regulated employees. The proposed regulations support the implementation of the three new leave provisions introduced in the Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, which received royal assent on June 20, 2024.
Case In Point
On June 9, 2025 the Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision in Ontario (Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development) v. Benevides, granting leave to appeal the provincial offences appeal judge’s decision to the Court of Appeal. Background This case stems from a construction site incident that occurred in April of 2020 where eight spools…
Human Resources Legislative Update
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) has suspended its appeals processes and extended objection time limits as over 3,600 unionized workers commenced rolling strikes on May 22, 2025, following failed contract negotiations with the Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU). The labour disruption has prompted significant operational changes affecting workplace parties seeking to challenge WSIB…
FTR Now
The Ontario Court of Appeal has delivered a significant decision in Bertsch v. Datastealth Inc., wherein the Court confirmed that properly drafted termination clauses can limit employees to only their statutory minimum entitlements under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) upon termination.