Bill 148 Timeline of Amendments
On November 22, 2017, Bill 148 Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act was passed, which will introduce significant changes to the Employment Standards Act, 2000, the Labour Relations Act, 1995, and the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Outlined below is a brief overview of the changes to the Employment Standards Act that are scheduled to come into effect.
Bill 148 Timeline – Employment Standards Act
Effective Immediately
- Employers are prohibited from misclassifying employees as independent contractors
- Leave of absence – Parental and Critical Illness leave allowances have lengthened
January 1, 2018
- Minimum wage increase to $14.00 per hour
- Paid vacation increases to 3 weeks per year for all employees with 5 or more years of service
- New calculation rules for Public Holiday Pay
- New calculation rules for Overtime Pay
- Temporary Help Agencies – Employees are entitled to one week’s notice, or pay in lieu of, for early termination of assignments that were scheduled to last longer than 3 months
- Leaves of Absence
- Personal Emergency Leave – All employees entitled to 10 days, 2 must be paid; Employers prohibited from requiring a doctor’s note for this leave
- Family medical leave increased to 28 weeks in a 52-week period
- Pregnancy leave for still births or miscarriages – 12 weeks of leave
- Child death leave – up to 104 weeks
- Crime-related child disappearance leave – up to 104 weeks
- Domestic or sexual violence leave – 10 days and 15 weeks per calendar year, 5 days must be paid
April 1, 2018
- Equal pay for equal work provisions
- PT, temporary and seasonal employees entitled to be paid equally to FT employees when performing substantially the same job
- Employee has the right to request that the employer review their wages if they believe they are not receiving equal pay for equal work; Employee has protection from reprisal for these inquiries
January 1, 2019
- Minimum wage increase to $15.00 per hour
- Scheduling provisions
- Employee has the right to request schedule or location changes
- Employee has the right to refuse shift assignments if assigned with less than 96 hours’ notice
- Employee has entitlement to three hours wages of regular pay if:
- The employee reports to work, but works less than 3 hours
- The employee’s shift is cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice
- The employee is asked to be on call, but not called in
- Employer has the obligation to keep records of dates and times that employees are scheduled to work or be on call, in addition to any changes to the schedule
For more information on all the changes associated with Bill 148 please refer to the Legislation.
