On December 6, 2018, Bill 57, Restoring Trust, Transparency and Accountability Act, 2018 ("Bill 57") received Royal Assent. Bill 57 postpones the coming into force of the Pay Transparency Act, 2018 from January 1, 2019 to a date to be determined by the government. For more details regarding the Pay Transparency Act, 2018, please refer to our communique here.
The Ontario government also introduced Bill 66, Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act, 2018 ("Bill 66") on December 6, 2018. If passed, Bill 66 would amend certain hours of work and overtime rules in the Employment Standards Act, 2000. In particular:
- Employers will no longer be required to obtain the approval of the Director of Employment Standards in order to permit hours of work in excess of 48 hours per week. An employee's hours of work may exceed the limit of 48 hours per week if the employee has made an agreement with the employer that he or she will work up to a specified number of hours over the limit and his or her hours in a work week do not exceed those specified in the agreement.
- Employers will no longer be required to obtain the Director's approval in order to make agreements that allow them to average their hours of work for the purpose of determining the employee's entitlement to overtime pay. Hours may be averaged in accordance with the terms of an averaging agreement between the employee and employer over a period of up to 4 weeks.
Bill 66 also proposes to eliminate an employer's obligation to post the Employment Standards Poster in the workplace.
We will continue to provide regular updates on these and other changes to Ontario's workplace laws as they occur.
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