Your Guide to The Employment Standards Act

This guide is a practical source of information about essential areas of the ESA. It is for your details and assistance just. It is not a legal file. If you require information or exact language, please describe the ESA itself and its regulations.

This guide ought to not be used as or considered legal guidance. You might have greater rights under an employment agreement, collective contract, the common law or other legislation. If you’re uncertain about anything in this guide, please talk with a legal representative.

Topics covered by the ESA?

These include:

advantage strategies

bereavement leave

kid death leave

crime-related kid disappearance leave

critical health problem leave

stated emergency leave

domestic or sexual violence leave

the employment standards poster: distribution requirements

equal pay for equivalent work

household caretaker leave

household medical leave

household obligation leave

submitting a claim

hours of work, consuming durations and pause

infectious disease emergency leave

licensing – short-term aid firms and employers

lie detector tests

minimum wage

non-compete arrangements

organ donor leave

overtime pay

payment of earnings

pregnancy and adult leave

public holidays

reservist leave

severance of work

ill leave

short-lived assistance firms

termination of work and short-lived layoffs

ideas or gratuities

holiday.

written policy on detaching from work.

composed policy on electronic tracking of workers.

Reprisals are prohibited

Employers are forbidden from punishing workers in any way due to the fact that the employee worked out ESA rights.

Clients of short-lived help firms are prohibited from penalizing project workers in any way since the assignment staff member worked out ESA rights.

Recruiters are forbidden from punishing prospective staff members who engage or use the employer’s services in any method for specific reasons, including asking the recruiter to comply with the Act or inquiring about whether an individual holds a licence as required by the ESA.

Employers, clients of momentary assistance firms and employers who devote a reprisal can be:

– bought to compensate the staff member, project staff member or potential worker.

– purchased to renew the staff member or project staff member (if the reprisal was committed by a company or client of a short-term assistance firm).

– ordered to pay a charge.

– prosecuted.

Find out more about reprisals.

Greater right or benefit

If an arrangement in an employment agreement or another Act gives an employee a higher right or advantage than a minimum employment requirement under the ESA then that arrangement uses to the employee instead of the employment standard.

No waiving of rights

No employee can accept waive or give up their rights under the ESA (for instance, the right to receive overtime pay or public vacation pay). Any such agreement is null and void.

Enforcement and compliance

Violations of the ESA can lead to enforcement action.

The kind of enforcement action that can be taken depends upon which arrangement of the ESA was contravened. Examples consist of:

– an order to pay.

– a compliance order.

– a ticket.

– a notice of conflict with a monetary charge.

– an order to reinstate and/or compensate.

– prosecution.

Other workplace-related laws

The ESA includes only some of the guidelines affecting work in Ontario. Other provincial and federal legislation governs issues such as workplace health and wellness, human rights and labour relations.

Related Ontario laws include the:

Occupational Health And Wellness Act.

Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997.

Labour Relations Act, 1995.

Pay Equity Act.

Human Rights Code.

To find out more about other Ontario laws, contact ServiceOntario:

– Tel: 416-326-1234 (in Toronto).

– Toll-free: 1-800-267-8097 (in the rest of Ontario).

– online at ServiceOntario.ca.

Federal laws impacting workplaces consist of statutes on earnings tax, employment insurance coverage and the Canada Pension Plan.

To find out more about federal laws, call the Government of Canada info line at 1-800-622-6232.

Who is not covered by the ESA?

Most employees and employers in Ontario are covered by the ESA. However, the ESA does not use to some individuals and the people or organizations they work for, such as:

– workers and employers in sectors that fall under federal work law jurisdiction, such as airlines, banks, the federal civil service, post offices, radio and television stations and inter-provincial railways.

– individuals working under a program authorized by a college of applied arts and innovation or university.

– individuals working under a program that is approved by a career college signed up under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005.

– secondary school trainees who work under a work experience program authorized by the school board that runs the school in which the student is registered.

– individuals who do community participation under the Ontario Works Act, 1997.

– police officers (other than for the lie detectors arrangements of the ESA, which do use).

– inmates taking part in work or rehabilitation programs, or referall.us people who work as part of a sentence or order of a court.

– people who hold political, judicial, religious or elected trade union workplaces.

– significant junior ice hockey gamers who meet particular conditions associated with scholarships.

– people who satisfy the meaning of or infotech specialist under the ESA if certain conditions are met.

For a complete listing of other people not governed by the ESA, please inspect the ESA and its guidelines.

Employee misclassification

Employers are forbidden from misclassifying employees as independent specialists, interns, volunteers or any other type of worker not covered by the ESA.

Find out more about employee misclassification.

Additional resources

In addition to this guide, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD) has extra resources offered to help you:

– The Employment Standards Act Policy and Interpretation Manual is the main recommendation source for the policies of the Director of Employment Standards respecting the analysis, administration and enforcement of the ESA.

– Staff at the Employment Standards Information Centre are readily available to answer your concerns about the ESA. Information is readily available in lots of languages. You can reach the info centre from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m.